Rose and Scorpius 19 years later
by Slytherpuff and proud
Summary: Rose Weasley, Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy begin their time at Hogwarts. But will the reputations their parents left stop them from ever getting along? Or will their mutual belief in finding their own paths bring them together? I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters, it belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling. Please enjoy. I aim to write at least 8 or 9 chapters.
1. Chapter 1 FIRST YEAR

**FIRST YEAR. 19 YEARS LATER**

 **LEAVING FOR PLATFORM 9 3/4 - MALFOY MANNER**

"Scorpius" Draco called hesitantly to his son. "Come here for a moment." the young boy with slick blonde hair and pale green eyes and a calm face, left his mothers side and walked slowly towards his father. "Now son," Draco said gripping Scorpius's shoulders and crouching down to the eleven year olds height. "I've told you everything about my time at Hogwarts. And it is all the complete truth. I was a bully and a pure blood snob. But that's not who I am now thanks to-"

"Mr Potter for forgiving you. _And_ mum because she helped you realise that your prejudices were ridiculous and that's how you fell in love, yes. You've told me _all_ this before!" Scorpius droned in a monotone voice.

He was right. The amount of times his father had pulled him aside for a one to one. He understood how important it was, but to have to hear it a million times was just annoying. Plus his mother constantly told him that Draco was _not_ the same person anymore.

Draco smiled weakly at Scorpius. His was his only son going away to school with the name Malfoy which was hated by so many. While he was left with his parents and wife whom didn't really get along.

"Be careful. People will judge you because of your last name. Because of my reputation and my father's reputation. Ignore them. You know who you are, you know that I'm no longer the person people think I am and you know your mother especially would never stand for this pure blood nonsense."

 **PLATFORM 9 3/4**

Draco and Astoria were pointing out people they had known from their days at school between goodbye hugs.

"Ok, ginger hair pretty much means Weasley. They don't like me that much." Astoria shot Draco a warning look. "Ron Weasley and his wife Granger, over there, they are not fans of mine" (and I don't blame them) thought Draco. "They must be their children, the ginger boy and girl. I guess the eldest of those Weasley's will be in your year. There are the Potters" Draco nodded at Harry who had spotted him across the crowd. "Married a Weasley" he muttered to Astoria.

"Dad. Will I be in Slytherin?"

"I was, the entire Malfoy family have been." Draco quickly looked away from his son's worried face. He heard Astoria sigh and could almost feel her eyes rolling at him.

"Scorpius, it doesn't matter what house you are put in. It reflects you, who you are. Not who your family were, although it does take that into account. You can control who you're going to be. If you are sorted into Slytherin, it does not mean you are destined to believe that pure bloods are superior and bully others because of their blood status." She kissed him on the forehead and linked her arm with Draco's. "We will be proud of you no matter what house you are put in."

It was time to board the train.

Scorpius boarded feeling a mix of excitement and doubt and yet he seemed calm. To those who did not know him, he seemed to look down at others as he passed each compartment. But in reality he was worrying even more as he could not find a compartment with room for him and he felt awkward having to look around for what seemed like ages.

James and Albus Potter, and Rose Weasley had found a compartment together on the train and were now sitting in dead silence. James stared bored out the window as they were out of sight of their parents on the platform. He was dreading the classes ahead. He was smart, but not the smartest. James was good at quidditch as they practised all the time at home, especially since his mum and dad were so good at the game.

The captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team had noticed how good James was at the end of last year and had specifically singled him out before they left for the summer holidays to tell him that he should try out for the team. James was a bit disappointed that he didn't get to play in his first year like his father, but he reminded himself that neither did his mother who played professionally.

Albus sat staring wide eyed at the floor. Breathing quickly and heavily. He was too nervous about the sorting into houses despite the chat he had from his father. Albus was not sporty like his brother, or outgoing like his little sister, or even extremely smart like his cousin and best friend Rose. He was caring though and charmingly awkward, he put others needs first. Apart from when he was nervous, like at the present, as he did not notice how quiet Rose was being.

Rose's back was leaning against the window and her legs stretched out on the seat next to her while Albus and James were opposite her on the left hand side. She had a book open as usual but she didn't look at it. Instead she was intently staring through the window on the door and at the corridor. She was probably the smartest out of all the Potters and Weasley's. Her mother's brains, as her father often said. Her ginger hair was wild and fluffy, sticking out in odd places with too much volume.

Rose sighed heavily, thinking about the year ahead and how she desperately needed to get high grades to live up to the standard of cleverness and wit which she had set herself through reputation and as the daughter of the smartest witch Hogwarts had seen in many years. Suddenly she realised both Albus and James staring at her. She didn't realise how loud she had sighed. A goofy grin spread across her face and the trio burst out laughing at how tense they were.

"Hey Albus," James piped up as soon as he saw how pale his little brother was. "It'll be ok. I know you hear horror stories as to how awful Slytherins can be, but they're really not that bad." Albus smiled weakly. "Any house would be lucky to have you. Plus most rivalry between houses is in quidditch. Everyone pretty much gets along despite of houses. Yeah, there are still some incidents" his voice went a bit high at the end, remembering his fight with a Slytherin as they had referred to a fellow student as having dirty blood and therefore shouldn't be allowed in the classroom.

James caught an alarmed look from Rose which told him he shouldn't have said the last thing. He knew that face, it was one he frequently got from his mother. "But it's all ok. You'll be fine. And besides, during breakfast, people pretty much sit at whatever table they want. So no matter what house you are in, we can talk every morning!"

"Why not during the rest of the day?" Albus whimpered.

"I'm a year older, we won't be in any of the same classes. But we can hang out during morning break and lunch after we've eaten, if you really want to. I just meant, that, well, at the very least we'll see each other during breakfast." He ruffled Albus's hair, who was looking much more relaxed by now. "Your my brother, we'll stick together no matter what. Right Rose?"

"Huh?" Rose hadn't really been listening, she had noticed a boy around her age, but seemed beyond his years in his wise and calm eyes, was listening into James's little speech to Albus. "Oh! Umm, yeah! We'll hang out together Albus. Even if we're not in the same house, we'll have a few classes together. It won't effect our friendship."

The boy still had not moved. He just stood there looking at James, Albus and Rose.

Scorpius had finally found a compartment he could fit in, only three people in there and plenty of room. He was about to knock and ask to join them but he heard the eldest boy with thick black hair talking about Slytherin and decided to stop and listen.

"Oi!" A boisterous voice shouted at him from the compartment.

He spun around to see that it was the red head who spoke, but she went straight to her book while the two boys looked expectantly at him. 'Ginger hair pretty much means Weasley' his father had said. Scorpius silently opened the door and stepped through.

"May I sit here?" He said in his most polite voice.

The boys smiled and tried not to laugh at his formality.

"Go ahead! No need to be so polite." James grinned.

"We know there's not much room. Just sit." Albus chimed in, feeling more his charming self.

Rose swivelled around to face James and take her legs off the seat next to her so that the blonde stranger could sit there, all the while with her nose stuck in the book without looking up. But Rose, being Rose, left a shoe on the seat as she swivelled. She lunged to grab it as Scorpius sat down but he ended up sitting on her arm.

Alarmed, he jumped up meanwhile she giggled quietly and snorted, grabbed her shoe and went back to her book again. James went back to staring bored out the window and Albus looked as he felt, extremely awkward. Looking everywhere but at the stranger.

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

Rose slammed her book down and turned to face Scorpius. "Merlin's beard! Forgot our manners." She glared at Albus and James, who looked just about as startled as Scorpius.

"James Potter, second year Gryffindor." James went for a hand shake and Albus followed suit.

"Albus Potter."

Only then did Scorpius realise the girl was waiting for a hand shake. He complied. He was impressed by their courage to introduce themselves so boldly to a complete stranger.

"The name's Rose. Rose W-"

"Red hair, you must be a Weasley. My dad told me how to spot you lot. Although my grandfather said something about hammy-down clothes which seems to be irrelevant." Scorpius couldn't believe he had said that out loud.

Rose felt the same.

"Blonde hair, all manners and no smile, you must be a Malfoy." Rose said with a tinge of bitterness.

He nodded at them but suddenly looked away ashamed and hurt as he heard the boys's sharp gasps. "I should go." He let out in an awkward yet polite hurry.

Scorpius didn't care that their families did not 'traditionally' get along, but he thought they may not feel the same, bearing in mind his family reputation and what awful things the death eaters, of which his dad, grandparents and pretty much all of his acquaintances and friends were part of. He stood and moved to leave.

He was too late. James, being the quick athlete he was, darted in front of the door to block Scorpius's escape.

"Sit." After some stern eye contact, Scorpius complied. This time sitting further away from Rose and closer to the door. James sighed, making Rose look up from her book once again. "Potters and Weasleys aren't known for getting along with Malfoys."

"There's no need to hold your last name against you." Rose mumbled and went back to her book.

Scorpius was calming slightly.

"My dad has told us so many times not to judge people on their surname, blood status or even their houses at Hogwarts." James reassured Scorpius.

"So has mine." Scorpius replied.

Albus smiled. Harry and Draco had never got along at Hogwarts. But after the war, things seemed to clear up a bit. There were no more feelings of hatred, at least not extreme, left between many of those involved in the war itself.

A first year girl with blond, straight hair and sharp brown eyes walked past in the corridor, giggling with her friends. She stopped and looked into the compartment, she pointed at Rose's wild ginger hair and the girl and her friends giggled even louder. They suddenly stopped laughing and looked at someone coming towards them. Their faces lit with terror and ran off.

Following them, while screaming at the girls to shut up, was Molly Weasley, Rose's uncle Percy's eldest daughter, and a Gryffindor prefect in her fifth year. She was tall and had short, sharp hair with a similar colour to Rose's. And behind Molly was her younger sister, Lucy who was a third year in Ravenclaw. Lucy gently grabbed her sisters arm so she couldn't charge after the first years, this made her glasses go wonky and she had to let go to push them back in place. Molly tried to storm off again but Lucy's quiet voice stopped her.

'Molly, stop shouting at them. You know you were just as prone to giggling and gossip when you were in first year. In fact, you still are now! You're such an embarrassing, hypocritical sister.' These were the only words they heard from a very calm and rational Lucy. The very opposite to Molly.

Both sisters turned around to see their cousins James, Albus and Rose. They grinned and waved at each other, ignoring Scorpius whom they did not know.

"What house do you think you'll be in?" Albus asked Scorpius eagerly once two of his cousins returned to their compartment. "James is in Gryffindor. So were my parents and Rose's parents."

James was fed up of talking about houses and so he went back to staring out the window, plus he was annoyed that his best friend Lorcan hadn't joined them yet. Rose remained silently reading her book while Albus became friends with Scorpius.

"I think I'll be in Slytherin. My whole family were."

"I was worried about being put in Slytherin, but I'm not too worried anymore. I guess I'll make friends wherever, plus I'll be in some classes with Rose."

"What house do you think you'll be in?" Scorpius asked Rose softly

"No idea." She said disinterestedly and shrugged "not sure I really care." Rose turned to the next page and continued reading, never looking up from her book.

"She does care." Albus interjected as Scorpius was slightly alarmed at her bluntness. "She's just too stubborn to admit it."

"What house do you think she'll be in?" Scorpius asked. He was curious about Rose.

She was boisterous and opinionated. Her hair seemed to reflect a disinterest in her appearance and her 'not caring what others thought' but 'she could still be fun to hang around with' attitude. But her eyes were concentrating hard showing wisdom and maturity. She was a bookworm with a loud and strong opinion but also enjoyed her friends and family.

"Oh, well, being a Weasley," Albus replied "I would say Gryffindor. But she's really book smart. So maybe Ravenclaw. But aunt Hermione was like her but was in Gryffindor. So I have no idea. Actually, sometimes I don't understand it, my uncle Percy was really smart and never seemed that brave compared to the rest of the family but he was in Gryffindor. He's not too bad now, but mum said he was a bit of a stick in the mud- sort of thing. Well not really but, he kind of rejected everyone when he moved out. Ashamed to be a Weasley. I don't know. But he's nice now, my uncle George didn't really get along with him until after the war." he continued to waffle on about the houses.

Scorpius half smiled at how chatty and excited Albus was. He was sure they were going to be good friends.

Two second years girls who were already in their robes were walking past and suddenly stopped to peep through the window. The giggled and waved at James who just winked back at them. Once the girls had gone Albus just sat staring at the floor, a bit flustered. Scorpius was confused. Rose, who had gone back to her reading, couldn't concentrate. At first she tried to hide her smile but a snort came out. Then she was fully laughing at James who playfully hit Rose with her own book and stared out the window, his ears slightly red. He was always flirting with girls.

 **SORTING HAT**

"Good luck." Scorpius whispered to Rose and Albus, who both smiled nervously at him.

They stared at the stool where the sorting hat sat. Never had a stool been the very image of what they all feared. When it started singing, the first years all jumped a bit. Leaving James and his best friend Lorcan to chuckle at them. Lorcan was Luna's eldest son, his younger brother, Lysander, four years younger than Rose and Albus, had not yet come up to Hogwarts.

Then the hat called out the names. 'Damn it, alphabetical order, _'._ Rose thought _,_ 'I'm going to be here forever.'

"Abel-Roy, Philomela" Professor Longbottom, head of Gryffindor and the defence against the dark arts teacher, read out from the front. She was placed into Gryffindor.

Rose's worry kept on getting her distracted. She only heard a few of the names every now and then.

"Blinston, Mae."

The blonde girl who had laughed at Rose on the train stood up. She didn't seem nervous like the rest of the first years. She gave a cocky huff to her nervous friend and strutted up to the stool. She looked down at the old hat in disgust, not believing that that 'mouldy thing', as Rose later heard her describe it, would have to touch her. Not to Rose's surprise, Mae was sorted into Slytherin.

Rose found herself only really noticing the Gryffindors, proving to herself that she knew exactly what house she wanted to be in.

"Earls, Sullivan." He was put into Gryffindor

"Fawley, Melissa." Gryffindor.

"Gardener, Annabella." Gryffindor.

"Hathaway, Grant." Longbottom's voice drifted into her ear as she watched the very exciting and seemingly charming boy with very short brunette hair hopped into the stool.

He was also sorted into Gryffindor. He was greeted enthusiastically by Sullivan Earls

Albus was also not concentrating and only heard the name Daniel Leyton being announced as he thought he recognised it. A glimmer of hope arose, he thought the Daniel may have been a boy he had been friends with when he attended a muggle primary school, just like all his cousins did as his dad and aunt Hermione had convinced his aunts and uncles. But his hopes were dashed as soon as he saw the tall boy with glasses. He was definitely not the short blonde kid from his muggle primary school. This boy was sorted into Ravenclaw.

"Malfoy, Scorpius." A few gasps and mutterings could be heard at the name of Malfoy.

"Good luck!" Albus quickly whispered to Scorpius as he made his way up to the stool and the sorting hat.

"Hmmmm, a Malfoy ey? Hmmm. You're a clever one. Brave too, very loyal but only to those you completely trust, of which there are very few. Hmmmm." The sorting hat muttered so that only Scorpius could hear. "However I think you'll do best in SLYTHERIN!" He shouted the last sentence as there was a roar of applause from the Slytherin table.

"McLaggen, Wesley." Longbottom shouted out, but nobody was really listening to the boy being sorted into Gryffindor as they were all preoccupied with the famous Malfoy in Slytherin.

But the list went on. Albus and Rose were clutching each other's arms. Both feeling the full effect of their nerves.

"Potter, Albus." Again there was whispering about the name.

The sorting hat had a hard time again. "You are strong, you'd be stronger if you allowed yourself to be. Not Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. But, hmmm"

Rose saw Albus mumble something to the hat.

"Don't mind too much hey? Well that is very brave of you, but there's a hidden leader in you somewhere dear boy. SLYTHERIN!"

Albus turned white as a sheet and there was silence over the great hall due to the shock of having a Potter in Slytherin. But that was soon over as the Slytherin table cheered and Albus sat next to Scorpius. He was glad to have a friend. James caught the eye of his little brother and gave him a wide grin and a thumbs up. They were going to be fine. And Albus meant what he had said to the hat, he didn't mind too much. What had been panicking him was that his family may be disappointed in him and .

A long time passed and many names announced before it was Rose's turn.

"Weasley, Rose." Murmurs yet again over the name. Rose bitterly thought to herself, 'actually its Granger-Weasley.' But she dropped the thought as soon as she was faced with the dreaded stool.

The Potters and Weasley's were famous. Not simply because of their parents, but of the many cousins of Rose's who had come through the school and the few still left to come. There were Weasley's in almost every year. Albus was the first related to that family to ever be in Slytherin. There were a few others, like Lucy, Percy's younger daughter who was in Ravenclaw. And Dominique who was in Hufflepuff. She was Bill and Fleur's middle child. (She was the younger sister of Victoire, who was dating Teddy Lupin (Victorie was in her last year in Gryffindor). Their younger brother was the baby of the family. He was three years younger than Rose herself.

"Well this is easy enough." The sorting hat boasted loudly and sent a few students into quiet giggles. "Any house would be lucky to have you, you're as smart as any Ravenclaw, as ambitious as any Slytherin and as hardworking and fierce as an Hufflepuff. But you, young lady, are more brave and strong of character and mind. GRYFFINDOR!"

Relief washed over Rose.

 **DAY BEFORE THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS**

Albus and Scorpius were early down to breakfast, they sat at the Slytherin table eating toast with marmalade and excitedly talking about the holidays coming up.

"We're doing what we do every year." Albus said. "Christmas Eve Eve just my siblings and parents, then over to the Burrow for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day."

Scorpius couldn't help but give a small smile. "Christmas Eve Eve? That's not a thing."

Albus grinned. "It is when you have such a big family! There will be 5 of us Potters, and then the Weasley's: Rose's immediate family. Then we'll have aunt Hermione's parents _and_ Uncle George and his family _and_ uncle bill and his family _and_ Uncle Percy and his family. _And_ if he's not busy, uncle Charlie. _And_ my grandparents! All in one house! Usually me and Rose sneak off and find a quiet place. Sometimes we get our broomsticks and just hover around until we get too cold outside."

"That sounds great." Scorpius said. "Normally it's just me, mum, dad and the grandparents. Grandfather will make pure blood comments meanwhile grandma tries to shut him up and mum gives disapproving looks. It all ends up in an argument and mum spends the rest of the day writing to her sister."

"Hey!" Rose waved and joined with boys at the Slytherin table for breakfast. She was also up early. She would often join them if they were already there. But as the three were so close, she would usually sit at the Gryffindor table if she was alone and they would join her at her table. (She was always early for breakfast)

"Hi. I was just explaining our busy Christmas to Scorpius."

"Ugh, don't remind me. I never get any reading done over the Christmas holidays!"

"That's a lie" Albus interjected quietly to only Scorpius.

Who whispered in reply to him "I believe you." But Rose didn't notice and continued talking.

"We are always given about a thousand jobs to do around the house! And only in the evenings, when the sun is setting, do me & Albus manage to sneak out." She sighed. "Those evenings are the best. Me and my best friend, trying not to worry about anything or anyone."

"Yeah but Lily always finds us, wants to join in and she ends up talking loads."

Scorpius let out a small smile at his best friends' nostalgia. "I know that it's not as bad as you make it sound."

They nodded in agreement with big grins.

"Just, don't forget to write. I'm going to be bored with my family complaining and arguing."

Rose laughed and soothingly rubbed his arm. "Don't worry. We'll write so often that you'll feel like we never really left each other's sides and you'll be sick of us."

They all laughed and chuckled.

"I doubt that I'll ever get sick of you two." Scorpius whispered honestly under his breath once they had left to go to their next class.

 **BOXING DAY EVENING**

Albus and Rose were laying next to each other on the grass just outside the Burrow. It was pretty much quiet except the odd sound of laughter from inside.

"So." Albus broke the silence

"So what?" Rose replied peacefully, Scorpius was right, they had had a great Christmas.

"Have you written to Scorpius?"

"We've _had_ this conversation, you know I have. Twice most days." She turned her head to look at her favourite cousin and best friend. "Have you?"

"We've _had_ this conversation, you know I have." Albus mimicked Rose resulting in a swift and friendly punch in the arm. Which set the two off in giggles.

"Do you ever find that he's-" Rose hesitated. Albus was a lot closer to Scorpius than she was.

"He's what?" A puzzled Albus leant on his side to see Rose's face.

"He's different in his letters to actually being face to face. I find he's more open, more - I don't know." She shrugged.

"I know. He's confident and calm. But in his letters, he is more comfortable to be himself I guess."

"You make him smile a lot Albus. He's comfortable around you, I think you're an important friend to him. Maybe his only real friend. One of the few he trusts."

"Your right, apart from one thing. You're the one who makes him smile the most. Even if he doesn't always smile, his mood seems to get lighter when you walk in."

 **BOXING DAY EVENING - MALFOY MANNOR**

Scorpius had had dinner with his family and then ran straight to his room. During dinner he had seen his Horned owl, by the name of Vincent, swoop past the window and had obviously landed in his room returning from his trip to the Burrow. Hopefully with a reply or two from his best friends.

As it was, Vincent had arrived with two letters, one from Rose and one from Albus. Both telling him all the fun they had on Christmas Day, what presents they had received and both telling the exact same stories. How Mr Weasley, Rose's dad, had stood up at the table to make a toast before they began eating and how he had congratulated Rose and Albus for their first term at Hogwarts. (Albus had said in his letter how glad he was that no one really talked about him being put in Slytherin.) At the end of his toast, Mr Weasley had congratulated (through gritted teeth and after a scowl and nudge from his wife), Albus and Rose on their new found friendship with 'that Malfoy boy' as Rose had written a direct quote in her letter whereas Albus quickly skipped over that part.

They had also written about another story that happened on Christmas Eve. Albus, Rose, James, Mr and Mrs Potter and Mr and Mrs Weasley had been playing exploding snap while Lily and Hugo played wizard chess next to them. James had managed to set fire to Lily's hair and the adults had stifled their laughter to help the poor girl out. Meanwhile Albus was imitating what had happened between fits of giggles and ended up setting fire to Rose's dressing gown.

Scorpius smiled, he could see the quite literally flaming red head squealing while someone tried to put out the fire. Albus would probably look mortified and rightfully fear for his life as Rose would scream insults at him while they chased each other.

It was getting late, Scorpius hadn't realised how late it was or that he had fallen asleep at his desk until he heard furious tapping at the window. It was an owl he did not recognise, holding a small square package. He let the barn owl in and took the roughly wrapped, brown paper parcel and gave the owl some treats as he read the note attached.

 _Dear Scorpius_

 _Merry Christmas! Sorry it's late._

 _By the way, this is my owl. Her name is Pocket. (Don't ask, I let Albus's sister Lily name her.)_

 _Anyway, attached should be a gift for you from me and Albus. We are sorry it's so small, but we thought you would want a little reminder this Christmas that you have friends who think you're the greatest! Can't wait to see you back at Hogwarts!_

 _Rose_

 _P.s: Albus here. Don't let Rose take all the credit. I did help. She doesn't know I'm adding this little note here, so don't mention it to her. She'll kill me, again. Anyway! Happy Christmas. She's right, you are the greatest and we are lucky to have you as a friend. MERLINS BEARD HERE SHE COMES! Ok bye. Hopefully she doesn't see my scruffy handwriting on her neat card before this gift goes out._

Scorpius opened the gift to reveal a small, silver picture frame with a moving photograph of the three of them sitting and laughing together outside on a bench in the snow. Scorpius could be seen smiling between the others, at something Rose and Albus were telling him with over exaggerated arm movements, obviously very excited on what they were telling him. Scorpius didn't remember a photo being taken, they must have secretly asked professor Longbottom to take it or even James.

As Scorpius went to put the frame on his chest of draws next to his bed, he realised at the end of the motion, before it reset again, Rose had out her arm around his waist. And the photo Scorpius looked deeply into Rose's eyes, staring at her, enchanted by her. Photo Rose blinked and began to reciprocate the enchanted look but the photo quickly restarted itself to the trio laughing.

Scorpius shook his head. He was so tired he was seeing things. He wrote out a quick thank you note and tucked it inside a card which he attached to Pocket and sent her home. Meanwhile he gave his two already wrapped presents to Vincent to take separately to Rose and Albus. His presents felt inferior compared to theirs. One was an extremely old, leather, hard back cover of 'Hogwarts a history' which he had found in the library at home, he recognised it as one of the original copies of the book Rose had been reading the day they had met. And the other was for Albus, a beanie hat with the chudley cannons, his favourite quidditch team, logo stitched on the front, and a matching scarf.

 **MARCH**

"Now students," professor Longbottom began the defence against the dark arts lesson. "Today we start with gnomes."

There were a few groans from around the classroom.

"Yes, yes, I know they're not very exciting. But can anyone tell me what they know about them already?"

Rose and Scorpius's hands shot up. The Gryffindors had defence against the dark arts, potions and Herbology together. James had been right at the start of the year when he said that Albus and Rose would see each other plenty. Mae Bliston rolled her eyes at Rose's enthusiasm and giggled with her friends at the back of the class.

"Umm, ok. Well, how about we start with you Weasley." She grinned at professor Longbottom and ignored Scorpius's huff next to her.

"A gnome, or garden gnome, is a magical creature commonly known to infest the gardens of wizarding households. The correct taxonomical name for gnomes is, purportedly, _Gernumbli gardensi_ , or sometimes referred to as _Gernumblie_."

"Well done. Ten points to Gryffindor. Malfoy? Anything else to add?" Longbottom looked at him expectantly, he wanted to give everyone a chance especially knowing that, as a Malfoy, the young boy wanted to prove himself different to his father and to show his true potential.

"Yes sir. Gnomes live in burrows underground, known as gnomeholes, where they dig up and eat the roots of plants, creating little heaps of earth around gardens a lot like moles. The natural predator of the Gnome is the Jarvey."

"Good. Ten points to Slytherin."

Rose and Scorpius shared smug yet encouraging smiles at each other as Albus rolled his eyes.

"Moving on, Gnomes are found throughout Europe and North America. A gnome in the Muggle world is an inanimate statue that looks like a small Father Christmas. Interestingly, the species has such a low level of intelligence that when a de-gnoming is being carried out they will hurry out of their burrows to see what's causing the commotion, which only renders them easier to catch. Alternatively, one can use a Jarvey to de-gnome a garden, but this method is considered much too violent and thus is seldom used. Now everyone get into partners, we are going outside to study an de-gnome around Hagrid's hut."

Albus rushed to Scorpius's side as they began to walk down, unintentionally leaving Rose on her own. She sighed and decided that she didn't mind being on her own. That's when Philomela Abel-Roy, a girl in her dormitory came and sat with her.

"Umm. hey. Do you mind if I go with you? It's just that Anna and Mel are going together."

Rose leaned past Philomela to see Melissa Fawley and Annabella Gardener chatting away together behind them. All three of these Gryffindor girls shared a dorm with Rose, she often felt left out because they were so close. Rose snapped her attention back to what Philomela was saying.

"Plus you're really smart." Philomela slapped her forehead with her palm. "Ugh, sorry Rose, that makes me sound like I'm only your partner because I have to be. I just saw you alone and thought-"

Rose laughed. "It's ok. I'm happy to be your partner. It'll be nice to hang around with a girl, that isn't a cousin, for a change. I think I spend too much time with Albus."

"Yeah, but Albus is sweet! Anna certainly thinks so."

"Ew, no! He's my cousin. Anyway," Rose and Philomela turned their attention to Professor Longbottom's instructions.

And thus continued their classes.

Rose and Scorpius were usually the first ones with their hands up. And were often asked if anyone _else_ knew the answers, or must the entire class rely on the knowledge of the walking textbooks? As smart and competitive the two were, they remained friends. Every smug grin or exasperated huff as one was allowed to answer but not the other, was all meant in harmless digs at one another. With Albus always on hand to roll his eyes and keep the peace between the three best friends.

 **MAY**

Charms classes were becoming more advanced, and slightly more dangerous. The first year students and moved from a basic levitation charm to a fire-making spell. Something that many of the students had been excited for, until the actual lesson came and most found that they were less than enthusiastic about it as some lost eyebrows or had permanent charred spots on their ties and shirts.

Rose sat in the courtyard on her own waiting for Scorpius and Albus to come out of their charms lesson. She had had hers in the previous week and only just managed to not burn herself despite tripping over a stack of books. She was skilled enough to stop the charm before any damage was made to herself or the books sprawled across the floor. Stopping the charm was a problem that a few Hufflepuffs had trouble with.

Rose couldn't help but giggle as she saw her friends come nearer. Scorpius looked normal, untouched but Albus was missing an eyebrow, his shirt was torn and charred and he was missing the handle of his bag as only two frayed stubs were left. He rolled his eyes and trudged towards his dormitory so that he could change his clothes, but he did not go without a few laughs from random people here and there.

"If you think he's bad, you should see Robin Stirling, from Ravenclaw." Scorpius said as the rest of his class passed them, going to their dorms to get changed and scowling at him as he was one of the only ones not burned. Rose gave him a questioning look as Robin walked passed with her hat on, whereas nobody usually bothered with them. "She set fire to the desk and her fringe. It's really not that bad, she was just embarrassed."

"Yeah, I understand that. People in my class, especially that Hufflepuff Finley Norwood, had trouble putting out the fire."

Rose couldn't help but burst out laughing as Mae Blinston walked passed. The arm of her robes had completely burnt off and there was a bald patch on the back of her head.

"Oh, and Mae got in the way of Daniel Layton's fire-making spell. I think me and Webb were the only ones who did the charm correctly."

"Webb?"

"Ravenclaw girl, I have no idea what her first name is. She's kind of lonely."

Scorpius and Rose took out their homework and got a head-start while they waited for Albus to come back. They were happy enough together to just sit there in a comfortable silence, writing essays.

"Aren't you guys fun." Albus raised his one eyebrow at them which made Rose laugh so much, she spilt ink all over a piece of parchment. As they mopped it up, Albus realised that if he didn't speak, then there wouldn't be much conversation out of his friends other than the odd sentence. "So, Rose, how was history of magic?

"It was great! I've got loads of notes ready for our next essay. Oh and Finley Norwood fell asleep again, Professor didn't notice until someone, although I suspect it was Grant who started it and loads of people joined in, started making objects hover around his head. Finley woke up when it all was loudly dropped on his desk and Professor gave him detention."

"Rose," Albus gave his cousin a disbelieving look as he smirked. "You were the one who started the flying objects weren't you?"

"She just said it was Grant. Who is Grant?" Scorpius asked.

"Oh, he's in Gryffindor. He's the guy who has short brunette hair. His last name is Hathaway."

"Oh no, you're not getting out of answering this Rose." Albus spoke up.

Rose huffed. "Yeah, I started it. But Finley was snoring! It was pretty funny, you should've been there."

"What's funny." Fred Weasley, Angelina and George's son and the brother of Roxanne, she was in her fourth year with James. Fred was in his fifth year with their cousin Lucy. "Apart from Albus's eyebrow."

Albus growled and covered the missing eyebrow with his hand. "Rose floated objects around some guys head because he was sleeping in class."

Fred burst out laughing. "Oh, Merlin! With stunts like that you might turn into James and Lorcan!"

Rose smiled. "I don't think I'll ever be as bad as those two."

Fred then went on to tell them how, last year, Lorcan and James had managed to slip ' _Puking Pastilles'_ and ' _Nosebleed Nougats'_ to most of the teachers and nearly the whole school had lessons cancelled thanks to them.

 **THE DAY BEFORE SUMMER HOLIDAYS**

The trio lay side by side next to the lake. The warm sun beating down on them as a gentle breeze swooped over.

Albus sighed. "Have you packed yet Rose?"

"I've been packed for two days."

"Typical. You'll be out having fun while I'll be stuck indoors packing." Huffed Albus.

"I'll help you." Scorpius chimed in.

The trio remained laying in the sun for a few more minutes. A comfortable silence for two of them but the tallest and palest of them was fidgeting. He opened and closed his mouth a few times. Knowing what he wanted to ask but not sure how. He was scared. But he didn't show it.

"I-" he cleared his throat.

Albus sat up to look down on his friend who was laying still.

Scorpius continued. "I'm going abroad to France for two weeks with my parents. Then we're visiting family for a week in Sweden. Then three days in Belgium with friends of the family. But other than that I'll be home."

Albus raised his eyebrows. Scorpius had told him this the other day so he must be planning to say something else. Rose lay the other side of Scorpius, listening but too lazy to open her eyes or sit up.

"Well go on."

"I'll write to you. You don't have to but, you know," Scorpius's voice trailed off as Rose suddenly shot up staring down at him with disapproving eyes.

"Oh, yeah. And you think we won't write back?" She almost spat at him. "We have all been friends for a year now!" The boy under attack slowly sat up and squinted in the sun to see her towering above him. "Don't give us that whiny 'you don't have to but'" she mimicked him. Albus raised his eyebrows at her. Rose grabbed Albus' arms and pulled him up, then did the same to Scorpius. "Albus, go pack." Her cousin complied.

Rose still had her hands gripped on Scorpius's forearms. "You astonish me sometimes Scorpius."

He stared enquiringly into her eyes, not daring to look at her small hands holding him so close, in fear that she might let go. He liked being close to her.

"We _are_ friends. When we get back to Hogwarts for our second year, nothing would have changed. Me and Albus will not have abandoned you!" She now hugged him and spoke softly in his ear. "Don't doubt me Scorpius, please."

Rose and Scorpius caught up to Albus and the three began to walk back to the castle.

James and Lorcan came running out laughing their heads off. Professor Nye, the head of Hufflepuff and care of magical creatures teacher, came charging after them.

James and Lorcan continued running and laughing all the way to Hagrid's house, before the half-giant hid them. Professor Nye stopped outside the doors and spoke in a loud voice.

"Students, I warn you not to go near the library. As two students just set off dung bombs outside."

The Librarian Madam Prince came coughing outside.

"Just you wait until I find those brats who-"

"Madam," Professor Nye tried to comfort her but it was no use.

"If I could, I would ban them for life from even stepping a foot in _my_ library. But apparently I can't. But be certain that they will _not_ be allowed in for at least two months at the start of next year!"

Rose looked at Albus and they began to laugh. Their cousin Victorie, who was in her last year, could be heard laughing behind them. They all knew that setting off a dung bomb just a few minutes ago had been the first time James and Lorcan had even been _near_ the library.


	2. Chapter 2 SECOND YEAR

**SECOND YEAR. 20 YEARS LATER**

 **EXACTLY ONE WEEK BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS**

 **DIAGON ALLEY**

Scorpius waited patiently outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. He could see his mother in a coffee shop across the street, ready to start shopping for school supplies once her son had met up with his friends.

Scorpius and Albus had met up during the summer on the odd days to fly around the grounds at Malfoy manner, (but never actually going inside as Scorpius feared the reaction of his grandfather who lived with them), or they went to George Weasley's shop and one day Scorpius and Rose were invited to the beach for a few hours with the Potters. No hard feelings there, only a few awkward silences and uncomfortable glances. Rose hadn't been able to go as she spent the summer with her muggle grandparents.

"SCORPIUS!" He glanced up as he heard and excited cheer of his name. Rose came tumbling through the crowd, earning a slightly annoyed and alarmed look from her father.

Her hair was as usual. An extremely fluffy, out of control ginger mass. Her little face and hands covered in freckles. She wore muggle clothes, jeans, trainers and a hoodie.

"You haven't really met my family have you?" She spoke quickly as she saw her dad looking everywhere but at her friend. "This is my dad, Ronald Weasley." Forcing them to look at one another and Ron to give a curt nod. "My mum, Hermione."

Scorpius nodded and pleasantly shook the hand that was presented to him. Hermione Weasley looked exactly like her daughter except she was a brunette and a foot or two taller.

"Lovely to meet you at last." She weakly smiled in return, her eyes were slightly puffy as if she had been crying. "Rose talks about you all the time!" Mrs Hermione Weasley perked up.

Rose suddenly turned red and was unable to speak.

"This is my son, Hugo. He's starting his first year at Hogwarts next year, along with Albus's little sister Lily." Hugo nodded and grinned at Scorpius.

The family waved their good byes and arranged to meet Rose later so that they could buy school supplies.

"I don't talk about you _all_ the time." Rose rushed out in one long breath. The two looked at each other and smiled. For no reason other than relief to be near a good friend again.

Albus soon arrived with his family, all of whom had met Scorpius before a they smiled politely at him before catching up with the Weasleys.

Albus, Rose and Scorpius ordered ice creams and sat and talked about their summer for about an hour and a half before their families took them away for much needed shopping for the next school year. Sure the trio had written to each other almost everyday, and had met up once or twice, but it wasn't the same as being together and being able to build excitement for the year ahead.

 **TWO WEEKS INTO THE SECOND YEAR**

The trio sat outside in the quidditch stands, watching the Gryffindor team practise for the upcoming match against Hufflepuff. They waved to James as he sped past them, he had been made a chaser last year.

Suddenly Lucile Pond, chaser for Gryffindor who was in her third year, came to hover right in front of the trio. She had a loud mouth, not afraid to speak her mind and was not aware of how sometimes what she said may effect others. But overall she was quite nice to Rose.

"Hey Rose! Why are you hanging out with Slytherins? There are plenty of Gryffindors over there who are in your year!" She gestured to the stand directly opposite.

"It's ok Lucile, I'm fine. I've got my friends. Besides, Albus is my cousin, I thought you knew that."

Rose tried to smile politely and act a kindly as possible to her fellow students. But to be honest, she was fed up of the constant asking as to why she hung around with Slytherins, especially a Malfoy. Everything was fine last year, but all of a sudden people were asking questions.

Lucile shrugged and flew away sensing a slight hostility from Rose.

"Rose, play nice." Albus pleaded. He had a bit of a crush on Lucile.

"No!" They were all equally shocked by Rose's sudden anger. She even surprised herself.

"Look, we are only two weeks into our second year and I've been asked about a million times why I hang around with a bunch of Slytherins! Especially a _Malfoy_!" She was now angrily pacing in front of the guys. "It's no one's business who I am and am not friends with!"

"Rose-" Scorpius tried to calm her down.

"No!" Rose growled. "If I'm interrogated one more time, I'm going to lose it! WHY DO THEY EVEN CARE!" She grabbed her bag from under her seat and began to storm off.

"Rose, where are you going?" Albus called after her.

"If I stay outside, I can just see people staring at me, judging me! I hate it. I mean, for Merlin's sake, does it really matter? Should I have to be forced to sit in the corner of the Gryffindor common room for the questions to go away?!" And with that she pushed her way through the crowd of first year Slytherins who had spotted a Malfoy and were desperate to talk to him.

Scorpius looked at Albus, concerned. His friend just shrugged then suddenly burst out laughing.

Scorpius looked over to where Albus was looking. There in the distance was Mae Blinston, she was openly laughing in Rose's face and sent a hex at her. Rose managed to dodge out the way and the hex, which was meant to turn Rose's hair blue, hit a first year Ravenclaw instead. Even from such a distance, Scorpius and Albus could see Rose's anger. In retaliation she sent back a hex so fast that Mae didn't even have a chance to blink. Mae and her friends suddenly grew horns and ran away screaming while Rose quickly fixed the Ravenclaw's blue hair and charged her away into the castle. Everyone now jumped out of her way.

"Don't worry Scorpius, she'll get over it. Sometime she gets all riled up and just disappears for half an hour to cool down. She does that at home all the time if she and Hugo argue." Albus reassuringly patted his friend's shoulder. "It's not your fault, don't worry. But I do get where she's coming from. Since these new first years came, everyone seems to not want to leave us alone."

"That's because I have an acquaintance in the year below. A friend of my father, her son is now in Slytherin. He has a pro-pure blood superiority mother and father, who hate each other. His parents aren't together but he splits the holidays with them, although he kept his mothers last name so I guess he spends more time with her. Poor kid is getting stories of the heroics of Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson at his side the entire time, although that's not true, from his mum. And then stories of Draco Malfoy the git and how Pansy Parkinson was all over him, from his dad."

"Who?"

"Lloyd Parkinson, son of Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini"

"Oh him. Yeah, I think he keeps on pestering Rose." He saw the concerned look on Scorpius's face. "Nothing she can't handle though," he reassured his friend. "I mean, this is Rose we're talking about. There isn't much that she can't handle. She'll be fine. We've got potions next with her, you'll see, she'll be calm and normal."

However, Albus was wrong. Rose did not talk to either of them for the entire lesson, although she always sat on the Gryffindor table and them on the Slytherin table, she usually talked to Scorpius and Albus while they were lining up and while they were leaving. Whereas, for the whole lesson she stayed and talked with fellow Gryffindor Philomela Abel-Roy and after lessons, they saw her with a Hufflepuff, Finley Norwood.

Scorpius and Albus did not actually talk or even receive eye contact with Rose until the following morning at breakfast when they sat either side of her at the Gryffindor table, forcing her to have to talk to them, as she was the first of her house ready and dressed. She seemed almost back to her old self, although a bit short tempered, which wasn't unexpected, however she usually calmed down a lot quicker.

Lloyd Parkinson arrived in the great hall shortly after Scorpius and Albus and looked disapproving that they were eating and socialising with a Gryffindor, especially at the Gryffindor table.

"Rose, you're seriously letting him get to you?" Albus said in disbelief.

Rose didn't care about other people's opinions of her, why was this any different?

"This is different Albus," Scorpius cut in as Rose took a mouthful of toast. "This isn't like when people make nasty comments on her cleverness, 'being a geek', eagerness to answer in class or -"

"Or my messy hair or my general scruffy appearance. Yeah, thanks, I am aware that people make fun of me." Rose spoke up, knowing exactly what he was going to say. He was right. People always made fun of her appearance and her almost 'know it all' attitude.

Scorpius went a very pale pink as Rose scowled at him.

She knew that he was going to comment on her hair. She didn't mind too much as he would have been right. Her mass of hair which seemed to have a mind of its own, did bring some hushed comments and the odd joke at her expense here and there. Normally she wouldn't care.

"I can answer for myself Scorpius."

He took away his hand which seemed to have found itself trying to be comforting on her shoulder as she had stiffened.

"Look, he's right though." Rose admitted after a comfortable sigh. "This seems to be a direct attack on our friendship. I'm taking this way too personally."

"Rose, you know you are entitled to care what others think about you, everyone cares about that. But people just need to get over the fact that Slytherins and a Gryffindor are friends." Albus spoke up, loudly enough for Lloyd to hear clearly as he had been obviously trying to listen in. "Some people need to grow up. And since when did little miss opinionated Weasley care what others thought about her." Rose gave her cousin a weak smile. "You have too much pride to let this effect you Rose."

And as if by magic, Rose was back to her usual self.

"Oh, and by the way, _amazing_ use of the horn hex!"

Rose grinned shyly.

Throughout the year, there were more whispers behind the trio's backs. But things died down a bit as they grew nearer to the Spring.

However, a certain Parkinson would not drop it. When ever he saw one of them, he would loudly make a remark on blood status or on the fact that 'superior' Slytherins were hanging around with Gryffindors. This seemed to effect Scorpius more than the other two. Not that he believed a word of what Parkinson said, but he was a friend of his fathers and that he knew he would not be able to avoid Lloyd forever.

When the summer holidays came around, Scorpius would be forced to go on his annual three day holiday with the Parkinson family to Belgium.

 **FEBRUARY HALF TERM**

Rose woke up late on the Monday morning, she looked around her. The sun was streaming through the window allowing her to see the other two occupants of her dormitory. Annabella Gardener and Philomela Abel-Roy were still fast asleep. The other girl who shared a dormitory with Rose, Melissa Fawley, had gone home for the half term.

Rose yawned and rubbed her eyes before going down to the Gryffindor common room. This week was going to be quiet, most students went home, in fact most of her cousins had gone. Hermione and Ron had decided to spend the week with Hermione's parents, John and Mary Granger. Rose and Hugo had not joined them as Mary was weak and the children might have been too much to handle. Hugo was to stay at the Potters.

The only cousins of Rose's that were still at school were Molly and Lucy, Rose's uncle Percy's children. Molly was in Gryffindor and in her sixth year, while Lucy was in Ravenclaw and in her fifth year. Rose knew it would be weird to be without the majority of her cousins and especially without her best friend. At least Albus was going to be back before the end of half-term.

Ginny and Harry knew that there was _no way_ Albus and James would get homework finished at home, so they would have to go back to school to make sure it was done in time. But she was also excited, this week would give her the chance to get to know the girls in her dormitory. She knew them but the three other girls always hung around and were skeptical of Rose because she was always with Albus and Scorpius. Two Slytherins. Rose was determined to make some long lasting female friendships that weren't with her cousins.

"Rose? Why are you up so early? It's half-term, we have nowhere to be." Philomela grumbled as she dragged herself into the common room and slumped on an armchair next to Rose.

Rose smiled. The girls she shared a dormitory with, along with herself, were not morning people.

"I guess I'm still used to getting up at this time to go to breakfast."

"I know what you mean, I did that all the time at my muggle schools."

Philomela was a muggle born, and when she got her letter about Hogwarts, she and her parents had not believed a word of it. They thought perhaps Philomela's older brother, Argus, who was at muggle university, was playing a practical joke on the family. So they ignored it. And a week after receiving the letter, when Professor Nye had come to tell her she was a witch, again the family thought it was just a joke. In fact, one of her mothers had laughed right in Professor Nye's face and told him to tell their son, 'nice try'.

However the arrival of an actual person, even after the letter which they had thought a joke, seemed a bit odd. The Abel-Roy family did not mention it to each other, but they were starting to believe that it might just be true. Every week that summer, Professor Nye visited the house to try to convince them, but they wouldn't listen. Philomela spent two weeks at a muggle secondary school and strange things kept on happening, shoes mysteriously hovered by the ceiling and it would randomly start snowing indoors. Nye managed to finally convince Philomela's mums when he showed them Diagon Alley.

"So, what are we going to do today?" Philomela yawned.

"Nothing." Rose sighed

Both girls fell asleep for a few hours on the armchairs by the fire. They were later woken up by Grant Hathaway and Wesley McLaggen, two boys in their year, when they came down from their dormitory.

"Morning ladies." Grant gave them his charming smile and Wesley winked at them. Which made Philomela blush.

For the rest of the day, Rose hung around with Philomela and Annabella. Both were very chatty and always had some new piece of gossip. As it was a long day of doing nothing, it was not surprising that none of the girls were tired enough to fall asleep.

Annabella, the louder one of the two, insisted that they share more about each other.

"Oh, like truth or dare?" Philomela asked excitedly.

Rose worked hard at not letting her groan sound out loud, instead she kept her dread of playing such a game inside of her head.

"No, well yeah. I was just thinking that, because we don't know Rose that well, we could play truth or dare or don't! That way we're nicer on Rose. Seriously Rose, you should hear some of the questions Melissa comes up with! She's amazing at this game! And she's especially great when you're playing with guys. She knows exactly what questions will make them blush and exactly what dares they don't really want to do, but will anyway because they want to show off. She has an older brother and two older sisters. She hears them playing with their friends all the time." Annabella talked quickly.

"Truth or dare or don't?" Rose asked skeptically. Rose was slightly irritated that Annabella thought she needed to change the rules to go easy on her.

"Yeah!" Both of the other girls enthusiastically exclaimed.

"Well, alright then. But Philomela and Annabella, you need to know I've only ever played this once with my cousins Molly, Dominique and Victoire. But that was a long time ago. And we weren't really playing properly because Aunt Fleur was listening in." Rose smiled at the memory.

"Ok, we will. But seriously Rose, you've got to start calling us Anna and Phil." Anna smirked.

"No! Not Phil!" Philomela exclaimed.

"Well, what _else_ would we call you?"

"How about Mel?" Philomela explained as if to say 'duh' to her friend

"No! We call Melissa Mel."

This stumped Philomela, she hadn't thought about it before. Rose was just enjoying watching their conversation.

"Alright then," Philomela finally gave in. "Call me Phil. But only _you_ guys can call me Phil! If anyone else does, I'll get Rose to hex them into the oblivion!"

The girls laughed, but Rose couldn't help but feel confused. They had complimented her magical ability, but were people really scared enough of her?

"Anyway, Phil, truth or dare or don't?" Anna suddenly snapped into action. Rose had never seen her so focused.

"Truth!"

"Have you kissed anyone yet? I mean have you had your first kiss yet? Not on the cheek and not from a family member. But a full on, dead on the mouth kiss yet? and who with?" Anna leaned forward, Rose was worried that she would fall off the bed.

"That's more than one question little-miss-chatty." Phil smugly answered.

"Ok then, just answer have you ever been kissed?" Anna rolled her eyes

"Yes."

"OH MY MERLIN WHO?" Anna almost leaped across the room to her friend's bed.

Rose giggled.

"Only one question at a time! Ok, Rose's turn." Phil smiled mischievously

"Truth." Rose surprised them both.

"How, in Merlin's name, do you know so many complicated and cool hexes? I mean, you put _horns_ on Mae Blinston!" Anna ran over and jumped on the end of Rose's bed.

Phil joined them. "That was so cool! She didn't come to any classes for a whole week, which I think suited everyone very nicely."

"My uncle George, my mum and my aunt Ginny had a role in that. I told them about Mae last year and George gave me a couple of things from his shop. Mum freaked out when she first heard. Then she told my aunt Ginny about it, but Ginny only found it hilarious that George wanted to give advice. My Aunt convinced mum to help her teach me a few hexes."

"Do you have a favourite?" Phil was fascinated.

"I like my aunt Ginny's famous Bat-Bogey hex, but I've yet to perfect it."

"Anna!" Phil clapped her hands right in front of her friend's face which startled the other two girls. Rose toppled sideways and almost fell off her bed.

Phil and Anna didn't seem to notice this because, one, they were used to Rose constantly falling over or dropping things, and two, they were too engrossed in their game.

"Truth or dare?" Phil stared intensely

"Or don't?"

"No, the 'or don't' part is only for Rose. You and I, on the other hand, don't really have secrets. Now, truth or dare?"

Anna scrunched up her face as she thought. "Ugh, fine then, truth." she said as she rolled her eyes

"Hmm," Phil grinned mischievously. "Rose, do you have any ideas for a truth?"

"Who do you have a crush on at the moment? And if you don't currently have a crush, who was the most recent?"

"Ooh, good one Rose."

"Well, that's easy! Albus Potter." Anna spoke without hesitation.

This time Rose _did_ fall off her bed and hit her head, hard, on the wall.

"Merlin! Are you ok Rose?" Phil and Anna ran to her side and helped her back on the bed.

"Yeah, no, I'm fine." Rose was feeling slightly disorientated.

"Are you sure? I don't think I've ever seen you hit your head so hard." Phil looked genuinely concerned.

"Meh, I'm fine." Rose finally clamoured back on to the bed. "Now what was this about Albus?"

"He's cute and I have a crush on him." Anna replied. "What? Don't you agree? He's also _way_ too nice to be in Slytherin."

"He is nice, but also quite awkward." Phil shrugged as she went back to her own bed.

"Charmingly awkward!" Anna exclaimed as she practically jumped back to her bed. "What do you think Rose?"

"I think he's my cousin."

"Oh, right." Anna nodded disinterestedly and focused back on the game. "Phil truth or dare?"

"Well, I never like your dares, but I really don't want to answer your truths."

"Then you've ran out of options. Suck it up and choose one." Rose was trying to invest herself into the game and ignore the fact that someone found her cousin attractive.

"Truth, I guess."

"Who was your first kiss?"

"I kissed a guy at my muggle primary school, Ryan Lewis." Phil laughed as she saw Anna's unimpressed face. "Of course, you don't believe me. Ok, well even though I'm telling the truth, I'll still tell you about someone you know. My first kiss at Hogwarts was Finley Norwood, we dated for about a week but I don't think anyone noticed. I'm not exactly high up on the gossip chain."

"Wait, you mean that Hufflepuff guy in our year?"

Phil nodded. "Terrible kisser, I would not recommend him. Plus, for a Hufflepuff he's pretty full of himself. He tried to take me back to his common room so that we could snog on a sofa, but he put in the wrong code or something and I got covered in vinegar."

Both Rose and Anna made disgusted faces.

"Rose, truth or dare or don't?"

"Truth." Rose shrugged.

"Who was your first kiss?"

Rose's ears turned red. "Umm, can I change to don't?"

"Nope." Anna got excited and once again bounced her way on to Rose's bed. "You have to answer once you've chosen truth."

"Come on Rose, a first kiss isn't exactly a big deal." Phil tried to be encouraging.

"It is if you haven't had one yet."

"Wow! Really!" Anna began to laugh but Phil and Rose shot her an angry look so she just sulked back to her bed.

"Really Rose?" Phil was curious.

"I'm only 13, so I guess I never thought about it." Rose shrugged. She didn't mind that she had never been kissed, it was their reactions to it that made her feel self-conscious.

"But, Rose, aren't you worried that if you think like that now, you'll never get around to being kissed?" Phil couldn't understand Rose.

"I guess I don't really blame her." Anna insincerely sighed. "when I was in first year, I thought 'Hey, I'm only in my first year, I'll have my first kiss later.' But then my sister told me about how some people who thought the same way, don't end up having their first kiss until they're in their late 20s. Then I thought 'Screw it! I want a kiss.' So I kissed some Ravenclaw guy from our history class. I'll point him out to you next time I see him."

Rose sighed. She didn't like the judging that she was getting from Anna and the pity she was getting from Phil. "You know what guys. This has been fun, but I need to sleep, I was planning on doing homework tomorrow."

Phil seemed quite happy to drop the game and go to bed but Anna was slightly annoyed. Rose could tell that she wasn't ever going to be close to Anna. Polite and civil acquaintances who live in the same room for most of the year, but not good friends.

The next day Rose decided to get up early and go for a walk. Rose was not a morning person, she regretted the decision immediately. She managed to quietly get dressed without waking Anna or Phil, she even surprised herself by not falling over or knocking over anything with very little light in the room. By the time she got down to the lake, it was 8:30am and she could see smoke coming from Hagrid's chimney so she went to visit him for a few hours. This cheered her up and she forgot that it was so early in the morning.

They mainly talked about Hagrid's old job as the care of magical creatures teacher as Rose was very interested in taking that subject. She loved it when Hagrid or her uncle Harry retold to story of how Harry had flown on a Hippogriff named Buckbeak. By the time Rose got back to the castle, it was the very end of breakfast so there wasn't much food left other than cold toast and whatever jam she could scrape from the bottom of the jar.

It started to get windy outside and Rose could feel a draft from the windows. She ran up to her dormitory to grab her jumper from her grandma, a red one with a large navy blue 'R' on it and a small white rose in the bottom corner. She snuggled up by the fire in the Gryffindor common room and started her potions essay on the uses of Flobberworm mucous.

Rose looked up after about an hour of hard concentration to see her cousin Molly across the room with some guy, also in her jumper from their grandmother. Her's was pink with a large grey 'M' in the middle. They caught each other's eye and grinned. After lunch, which again Rose spent alone, she completed two more essays, one for herbology and another for transfiguration. Three essays in one day. She was proud of herself. So proud that she decided that she deserved a treat.

Rose had convinced James and Lorcan to let her keep the Marauders Map with her over the half term, her bargaining was 'Well you won't need it, you'll be at home. Besides, what if I want to hex someone, I'll need to plan.'

That had won over Lorcan, he thought it hilarious whenever the supposedly quiet, sweet and innocent Rose Weasley hexed someone. James, on the other hand took more convincing. However as he was coming back to school on Wednesday, he agreed to let her have it as it was only a weekend and two days until he got his precious baby back. They were both initially confused as to how Rose knew they had it. Rose just scoffed when they asked.

The truth was that her dad had told her and Hugo about hit when recounting stories of Hogwarts. Hermione always told Ron that the kids didn't need to know about it, which of course made Rose all the more curious. Her uncle Harry thought it best not to give it to any of his children as they might just fight over it. Aunt Ginny went around Harry and gave it to James on his first day at Hogwarts. Ginny could see a lot of her deceased brother Fred in James, and so she thought it best that he have the Marauders Map as it was the secret of success behind so many of their pranks.

The map helped Rose find her way to the kitchens. She was just about to use the Wingardium-Leviosa spell to take two biscuits when one of the house elves spotted her. The tiny being giggled at Rose and skipped over to the plate of biscuits. Rather than giving her two, as Rose had planned only to take two, he gave her the entire tray.

"Are you sure?" Rose whispered, but a few other house elves overheard. They just grinned at her rather than being annoyed that she was holding an entire tray of biscuits.

"We always make more than we need. There's always a Weasley or a Potter after these biscuits."

"How do you know-?" Understanding suddenly came to Rose. Her jumper had given her away. "Thanks!" She smiled with glee and said her goodbyes.

Rose found a secret passageway using the map which took her very close to the Gryffindor common room. She left the biscuits hidden in the passageway while she sneaked up to her dormitory. Molly saw her and gave her a questioning look. Of course Rose had accounted that someone would notice her so she had brought a few biscuits to share around before grabbing a book, returning the map in a safe place in her trunk and returning to the passageway for the rest of the biscuits. She had checked the map quickly to find an empty classroom where she could eat biscuits and read her book. A perfect afternoon in Rose's opinion.

It wasn't until dinner that she saw something unexpected.

Scorpius. Sitting at the Slytherin table. Mae Blinston happily chatting away to him whilst he sat quietly listening.

It annoyed Rose. First of all because Mae had been horrible to her since first year. And second of all because she didn't know Scorpius was going to be at school over half-term. 'He really doesn't tell me anything.' Was all Rose could think.

Phil and Anna were chattering away together, occasionally including Rose in the conversation, but she was distracted by the blond boy she called a friend. 'I guess we're only friends through Albus. Mutual acquaintances.' Annoyed thoughts ran through her mind.

She was briefly glaring at Mae, when Scorpius noticed her. Mae had one hand drooped on his shoulder as she babbled away, but as soon as he saw Rose across the hall, he suddenly sat up straight. Which coincidentally knocked Mae's hand off him and she stopped talking when she realised he was no longer listening.

Rose's ears turned red. She hated to be caught staring. So she instantly looked away and over engrossed herself in Phil and Anna's conversation. Scorpius sighed inwardly and was forced to return to Mae's constant gossip. The only reason he got along with her was because he just sat and listened and he was too polite to ignore her or tell her to shut up.

Scorpius managed to catch up with Rose after dinner. She was trying to make her way back to the empty class room which still had half a tray of biscuits left sitting on the windowsill but he had tapped her shoulder and gently pulled her aside to an empty corridor.

Rose waited for him to speak. But he didn't. It was irritating her.

"What?!" Rose let out in a frustrated burst.

"I didn't see you yesterday." He did not realise that she was in a mood with him.

"No, I was spending the day with Phil and Anna." Rose crossed her arms.

"Oh. And today?"

Rose couldn't help but feel proud when she said. "I managed to complete three essays, read half a book, visit Hagrid and eat a lot of biscuits." She remembered the tray of biscuits. "Speaking of…" she mumbled and walked away briefly forgetting Scorpius.

She found the empty classroom again and smiled when she saw that the tray was still there with her book. Scorpius followed her in and pulled up a chair while Rose sat on the table.

They sat there in silence again, happily eating biscuits when Rose remembered she was annoyed with Scorpius.

"So, I didn't know you were staying for half-term. Thanks for telling me." Rose's sarcasm seemed a bit bitter.

"I thought I did tell you."

"No, you didn't. You probably told Albus though, our only mutual friend."

"Mutual friend?"

"Well, that's the only reason you hang around with me right? Because we have a mutual friend of Albus. Otherwise we're just acquaintances."

"Acquaintances? You don't think of me as a friend?"

Rose shrugged and grabbed another biscuit. "I thought we were friends I also thought _you_ thought we were friends, until today."

"What happened today?"

"Mae Blinston. She's been horrible to me since day one and yet you seem perfectly happy with her. And, of course, you didn't think me enough of a friend even to tell me that you were staying for half-term."

Scorpius considered this. "I thought I told you."

"But you didn't."

"Mae is in the same house as me, we see each other everyday. It's not like I can avoid her. And we get along as long as she's the one doing all the talking."

"Ah, talking. Something young Malfoy doesn't like to do."

"I'm talking to you right now."

"Only because you have to."

"No, only because I thought we were friends. We hang around enough just the two of us," he shrugged and took another biscuit, "I just assumed."

Roe sighed. He was right, when she thought about it, they _were_ friends. It was just that she had seen him with Mae and it aggravated her. Of course there was no way that Rose was going to admit out loud that he was right and she was wrong. And there was no way that either of them were going to apologise for the misunderstanding. So they continued to eat biscuits and tried to forget the whole thing.

"Where did you get these?"

"I snuck down to the kitchens and a house elf gave me the whole tray. They're very nice down there. They just assume at least one Weasley or Potter will come down for some sort of food so apparently they make extra."

"I'm assuming since you let me change the subject, that we're ok?"

"Yeah." Rose smiled and she almost said 'But I need you to talk to me more, otherwise I just feel like a third wheel to you and Albus. I feel like you don't trust me and it feels like a one-sided friendship. But I'll do it anyway for Albus. And for you.' But she said nothing.

They sat there for a few hours in a comfortable silence, just reading their books. Rose had never had this with any other friends, but she enjoyed it. Sometimes when someone would talk to her, all she wanted to do is run off alone and read a book. But now she had a friend whom she could sit with and read without seeming too rude.

Scorpius was just glad he was in the company of Rose. And away from Mae, who he did't mind until she started her rude rant about Rose, then he couldn't stand to listen to her for one second longer. Of course he never defended Rose to Mae, at least not out loud. In his head he was screaming and arguing with Mae when she criticised his friend. But normally he just nodded and tried to get away.

Wednesday finally came. Albus and James were going to return later on in the evening, Rose figured that she probably wouldn't see them until the morning.

Rose and Scorpius sat together in the library. They were supposed to be writing a history essay but Rose was distracted. She was thinking about Anna and how she had a crush on Albus. After ten minutes Rose had only dipped her quill in ink and let it drip until dry on her otherwise blank page. Scorpius gently tapped her on the shoulder.

"Oh, sorry. You must think I'm really weird, just spacing out like that." Rose shook her head.

"No, it's normal to glare at a wall for ten minutes. What did it do to make you so mad?"

Rose shrugged and turned to look at her empty page.

Scorpius just watched her. A faint smile on his face.

"Ugh! Fine." Rose got annoyed at his staring and looked him dead in the eye. "Someone told me the other day that they had a serious crush on Albus, and it just weirded me out a little bit. And don't ask who."

"I won't."

"Thanks."

"I can guess."

Rose scowled but Scorpius continued.

"The only people you hang around with are me, your cousins and, most recently, the girls in your dormitory. I know I never told you this,"

"-You never tell me anything-." Rose mumbled but Scorpius had already continued talking and didn't respond.

"Your cousins certainly don't like him that way. And I know for a fact that one of the girls is at home for the half-term. But I shan't narrow it down any further than that."

Rose shrugged again.

"But that's not why you were distracted."

"It was a factor, but not the complete truth." Rose accepted that Scorpius knew her well. "We were playing 'truth or dare' and they were talking about-"

"If you _are_ going to talk, I want you _out_!" Madam Prince startled both Scorpius and Rose by suddenly appearing at their desk.

Rose began to apologise but Madam Prince was having none of it. "You two are _obviously_ in a chatty mood, so out with you. And I don't want to see you in here together for at _least_ the rest of the day!"

Rose heard a chuckle behind Madam Prince. As she and Scorpius packed up their books and parchment, she looked over to see Molly laughing. Some guy was sat next to her also laughing. Lucy was only a few desks over and was glaring at her sister.

Rose flicked her wand while Madam Prince had turned to tell off some first years who had dropped a pile of books. Rose had used a biting jinx and made Molly's bag start nibbling it's owner's arm. This made the guy sitting next to Molly laugh even harder. Even Lucy let out a small smile and winked at Rose.

Rose couldn't see, as he was walking in front of her, but Scorpius was barely controlling his own grin. In fact, a few first years saw him grinning, and naturally they didn't know what at so they shot him weird looks.

Once they had made their way to the empty courtyard, Scorpius found them a bench without any bird poop on it.

"So, you were saying."

"We were playing 'truth or dare' and they were really getting into talking about serious crushes, dating and what their first kiss was like, with whom and how it compared to their other kisses. And all I could think was, 'we're 13! Do we really have to think about dating and a first kiss right now?'" Rose sighed. "I can't believe I actually admitted to two girls I've barely known for two years, and who I don't really hang around with, that I've-" Rose suddenly stopped short as she realised who she was talking to. She looked up and Scorpius was staring intently.

"Admitted…?" He edged her on

"I shouldn't be telling you this either. I guess I just miss Albus. Plus Lily isn't at Hogwarts yet, she's probably the only one of my cousins I trust with secrets."

"Albus is the first person I've ever trusted with anything."

Rose smiled. "He's a good guy. You know, it's probably not healthy, we should probably have more than one person we can trust completely."

Scorpius shrugged. "You can trust me."

"I've never been kissed!" Rose suddenly blurted out without thinking. Her ears turned a bright shade of red and couldn't look at Scorpius. "Oops." She stood to start pacing. "Well, I mean, it's not like it's a big deal or anything! I'm only 13. But Anna was saying that, when she was in her first year, she thought 'Hey, I'm only in my first year, I'll have my first kiss later.' But then she heard these stories from her sister, about how some people who thought the same way, don't end up having their first kiss until they're in their late 20s! And that got me worried, probably about nothing."

"Rose," Scorpius spoke calmly as he pulled her back to sit down next to him. "You have no need to worry, I'm sure the majority of people in our year haven't been kissed yet."

"Yeah, like who?" she huffed

"If it helps, I haven't. But you're right, we're only 13, well I'm still 12, we don't need to worry about it yet."

"Unless, of course, you want your first kiss to be with someone you trust."

"I like Albus but not enough to kiss him." Scorpius said dryly

Rose laughed, welcoming the comedic relief.

"Thanks for listening. But when Anna and Phil heard," Rose groaned and went on a rant again. "They made it seem like such a big deal! Phil just looked at me with pity and was like 'oh don't worry Rose you'll have it soon.' Meanwhile Anna couldn't stop laughing! I mean, do you ever think who your first kiss will be with? I mean, you want it to be someone who, a few years later, you won't be embarrassed about admitting that they were your first kiss. But then, I guess, do you have to a boyfriend first? I don't know. I really don't know what to do or what not to do, either. And what if your fist kiss is awful! You won't know if it's you or the other person, and just incase it's you who is terrible, you wont want to kiss anyone ever again, just in case-"

Scorpius put his hand on the back of Rose's neck and drew her in closer. She found herself kissing Scorpius Malfoy. Her eyes were wide in shock at first, but then, as the kiss went on, she found herself enjoying it and she closed her eyes to focus on him.

Scorpius suddenly scooted back on the bench. He couldn't look at her. He began to stutter. "I'm- that was- I'm so sorry- I shouldn't have- I mean if anyone saw- I didn't ask, or warn- it was just that you- you- um." He gave a shaky sigh and forced himself to look at Rose. "Sorry." He blurted out and began to walk away.

Rose grabbed his hand as he tried to leave. Her grip was too strong so he stopped. Scorpius did not turn around to look at Rose.

"I'm glad it was you." Rose whispered.

Scorpius turned to look at her.

"You're a good friend of mine and I'm glad my first kiss was with someone I know is trustworthy enough not to go around blabbing to everyone."

"Rose- I'm- I'm really sorry. You should have had the choice. You're amazing enough to have chosen anyone you wanted for your first kiss, and I just took that away from you."

"I couldn't have chosen any better than you." Rose leaned in and kissed him again. Rose smiled, "I think it's almost dinner time and I need to put my bag in my dorm. So I won't see you until tomorrow."

"Albus will be back after dinner."

"Good. We both miss him too much. But don't tell him that! He'll get cocky and won't let it go for ages."

Scorpius smirked. "I won't tell him anything."

Rose knew he was referring to their kiss too.

"Thanks." Rose gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder and went off to put her bag away. Leaving Scorpius to stare after her.

The next day Albus sat with Rose and Scorpius at the Gryffindor table for breakfast. They spent the next few days of half-term with him to entertain them. Rose and Scorpius pretended as if nothing happened. It would be years before either of them ever mentioned their first kiss.

 **BEGINNING OF JUNE**

Albus was laying lazily in the sun by the lake. Meanwhile Rose and Scorpius were sitting and revising for their charms exam which was only three weeks away.

"Why can't you two relax for just one moment." Molly Weasley suddenly appeared towering over her cousins. She was in her sixth year and the daughter of Rose and Albus' uncle Percy. "Take a note from Albus and relax a little before exams."

"Easy for you to say, you've finished your O. last year and your N.E. aren't until next year!" Rose was stressed, she didn't look up from her notes to talk to her cousin.

"Hey, I'd like to say my exams count for a little more than any second year exams." Molly answered back.

"Molly!" A small voice nudged her.

"Oh calm down Merlin, she knows I don't mean it. We were all just as stressed for exams every year." Molly brushed him off.

"Except for your cousin and his friend."

Molly laughed. "I don't think James and Lorcan care about anything other than revenge on Peeves."

Rose finally looked up to see that Merlin Jordan, Lee Jordan's son, was lazily draping his arm around Molly's shoulders.

"Hi." Rose finally stood. Merlin let go of Molly to shake Rose's hand. "The name is Rose."

"Nice to finally meet you. I'm Merlin." Merlin smiled.

Rose chuckled at his name. "Merlin?"

"Yeah, my dad has a great sense of humour." he said dryly. Then smiled at Rose to make sure she knew he was joking.

Albus then introduced himself. Scorpius sat reading his textbook, feeling as though he shouldn't join in a family introduction. But Molly was so friendly, she had other plans.

"And this is Scorpius Malfoy." Molly spoke loudly and Scorpius looked up. She grinned at him

"Malfoy?" Jordan looked apprehensively at Scorpius. Merlin protectively wrapped one arm around Molly's waist.

"Oh, he's harmless." Molly chuckled. "If he's a good enough friend for Albus, he's good enough for the rest of us. And pretty much the whole family has agreed that we like him."

This made Scorpius give a small smile.

"Ok, well we've got to go." Molly announced as she ruffled Albus' hair and gave Rose a quick side hug. "I've got to introduce my boyfriend to all the cousins."

"All?" Albus looked sceptical.

"Yeah, I figure I might as well get all the cousins to like him before the protective parents and uncles and aunts and grandparents meet him."

"I think you're underestimating how protective the cousins can be. You never know, the parents might be nicer." Rose smirked.

Merlin look momentarily alarmed before he realised Rose's smile.

"Don't worry, she won't bite. Unless you hurt our Molly, and then it's hell on earth." Albus smiled too sweetly.

"Doesn't bite?!" Molly scoffed. "She bloody jinxed by bag to start biting me the other day in the library!"

Albus suddenly sat up straighter and looked confused at Rose, she had yet to tell him this. Albus saw Scorpius stifle a smile. Albus rolled his eyes.

"And I saw her" Molly continued, "make some Slytherin girls grow horns!"

"Oh, wow, that was you?!" Merlin's excitement was uncontrollable. "I heard about that! But I didn't realise it was Molly's second year cousin. I guess, since the bag biting thing, I should've put the two together."

Molly laughed and dragged Merlin off to meet Dominique. Dominique was a year older then Rose and Albus, (same year as James) she was the younger sister of Victoire, and the older sister of Louis who was yet to come up to Hogwarts and the daughter of Bill and Fleur Weasley. Dominique was also the only Weasley to be in Hufflepuff so far.

"Oi! Dominique! There's someone I want you to meet!" Was all the trio could hear from Molly as they sat back down to continue revision. Or, in Albus' case, continue doing nothing.

 **TRAIN BACK TO PLATFORM 9 3/4**

Scorpius found an empty compartment and waited for Rose and Albus to turn up. They were trying to help James, who was attempting to catch and lock away a rogue bludger, who was given the task of putting away the quidditch equipment as a last minute detention from the games teacher, Professor Stockett, because he had pulled a last minute prank. James had bewitched the bludger to follow around and hover, just out of reach, his ex-girlfriend, Lucile Pond and her Ravenclaw boyfriend for two days straight.

"All alone, hey? I knew it. I knew your little Gryffindor & Potter were just tag alongs." Lloyd Parkinson burst into the compartment.

"Get lost Parkinson."

"Oh come now. we can't be falling out, can we?" Lloyd moved further into the compartment and slid the door shut. "I mean, we've practically been brothers-" Scorpius scowled and Lloyd corrected himself with a sly grin. "Cousins then. We've practically been cousins all our life. Plus, there's another Malfoy and Parkinson family holiday coming up. Don't let us fall out now."

"Get lost Parkinson." Scorpius repeated in the same monotone voice.

"Why can't I sit with you? The other Slytherins aren't nearly as entertaining." Scorpius did not react. "Come, indulge me. Tell me about your little tag alongs." He sighed and leaned against the door. "The Potter boy. I can kind of forgive you for that, I guess he was in your year, your house and all of your classes. Unavoidable really, in your first year. However, this year you had me to talk to." Again Scorpius did not react. "Maybe it was my fault," Lloyd speculated without sounding sincere. "Maybe I was ignoring you. Yes, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt."

Knowing what, or rather whom, Parkinson was going to talk about next, Scorpius decided to politely tell to get lost a third time. This time was said through gritted teeth. Parkinson did not comply.

"Now that Weasel girl-"

"Weasley."

"A Gryffindor as well! Tut tut. Now what _would_ your father say?! Come to think of it, what would _her_ father think of it. Now, now. This acquaintance will not do."

"GET LOST PARKINSON!" Scorpius raised his voice for the first time in a long time.

The last time he was this angry would have been last year when he got a howler from his grandfather. The letter screamed about this subject exactly. His friendship with a Weasley.

Scorpius had not realised that he was now standing, with his fists clenched at his sides. He may have shouted, but it was through gritted teeth- almost hissing at the annoying first year.

"What did I say about us falling out?" Lloyd answered "don't want to fight now do we?" Scorpius was still seething. "Or do you? Alright." Lloyd straightened up a bit. "Come over here and force me to leave."

The two boys stared hard at each other, both, quietly, breathing heavily. One because he was angry, the other because he was scared but wished not to show it. Scorpius was taller than Lloyd, but Lloyd was larger. As kids they had sometimes play fought if they were frustrated at not being allowed to go on the broomsticks as they were too little. But once they were older, they took out their frustration in a game of quidditch. Scorpius always won, no matter what they were playing.

Scorpius calmed himself, unclenched his fists and sat down again. This change was brought about as he saw Rose and Albus walking towards the train through the window behind him.

"No need to fight. I'm sure we will get along famously during our three days in Belgium." He bitterly retorted. "Now off you go, spend time with people your own age." He gave him a careless 'shoo' wave as he turned to open his book.

Lloyd would not accept this, he would not allow Scorpius the satisfaction of winning again, so he sat down on the seat nearest to the door.

"Do you not enjoy my company?"

"Not right at this moment, no. I guess I can tolerate you, when you are the only other person around my age and my mother is there to keep you in check. However, now I am saving this compartment for my friends, who will be here in just a minute." Scorpius was annoyingly calm and said this without any bitterness or sympathy in his voice.

"You class them as friends?" Lloyd was disgusted and stood up which forced Scorpius to look at him.

They both neglected to notice that Rose and Albus were now standing outside the compartment, listening in.

"Yes, I do. More so than you, and I've known you you're entire life." He stood up so that he could look down at Lloyd. "Now run along to your little friends."

And Lloyd left in a huff, but not without sending a rude gesture to Rose and Albus on his way out.

The trio sat in silence for a while, allowing Scorpius to cool off.

"I guess we truly are friends." Rose gently nudged him.

Scorpius gave a weak smile to Rose and Albus, who returned it with big grins.

They didn't mention Lloyd again.

"So my family are going to the beach again, just for a day. August 20th, different beach though, this year we're going to sunny hunny! Wanna come again?"

Scorpius's face questioned them.

"Hunstanton." Rose answered. "It's called sunny hunny by local muggles." She turned to Albus, "I'll ask mum when I get home. I know that we are going to be spending most of our holidays at my muggle grandparents house."

A small look of despair crossed her face but she quickly hid it by jumping up and making an excuse to go to the bathroom.

Scorpius leaned in so that he and Albus' faces were very close. He half whispered, "What was that?"

Knowing that Albus had also noticed Rose' face when talking about her grandparents.

"I know she is pretty close to them. She, uncle Ron and Hugo love going to a muggle house and they go every year! But usually only for a week, that changed last year when she spent most of their summer with them."

"Something is up. I wonder could you ask your dad when you get home? He might know wh-" Scorpius was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a Ravenclaw girl from their charms class, Robin Stirling and the Hufflepuff boy from their potions class, Finley Norwood.

"Oh!" Robin squealed, she then looked at Finley and they both giggled. "There are people in here."

A very confused Albus spoke up after a few seconds of awkward silence. "Can we help?"

"No, sorry. We were looking for somewhere to hide." Finley answered, "Robin's big sister, Maggie, is upset because she doesn't think she has done very well in her O. ."

Ordinary Wizarding Levels are subject-specific tests taken during fifth year. The score made by a student on a particular O.W.L. determines whether or not he or she will be allowed to continue taking that subject at N.E.W.T level the next year.

"Plus, James and Lorcan aren't helping. He's playing pranks on the Slytherins in the compartment next to ours and Maggie's. She's a prefect and is a mix of anger and 'wanting to burst out crying'."

"Not a fun mood." Scorpius concluded uninterested from the corner, not taking his eyes from his book.

Robin and Finley looked at him apprehensively, then asked a sympathetic looking Albus if they could sit with them until Maggie calmed down.

"Sure."

"Wait, no." Scorpius finally looked up in slight alarm. "What about Rose? There won't be much room-"

"Don't worry Malfoy," Finley interrupted. "Me and Rose are friends! It'll be fine, besides we'll go and find Robin's twin in a bit."

And so they sat in an awkward silence. Scorpius frowning at the two imposters, Albus weakly smiled and kept on opening his mouth trying to start a conversation, all the while looking like a fish. Finley didn't seem to notice as he was happily looking out the window at the rolling hills but Robin did.

Rose had been gone a long time. She was in the bathroom, crying. She hated crying. Every now and then there would be a small knock on the door, obviously people not sure if the toilet was occupied or not, but she ignored it and they eventually left.

She looked herself in the mirror. "Come on Rose, pull yourself together." She whispered to herself as she dried her tears and began to wash her face. It didn't work, she began to cry again.

There was a knock. She ignored it.

They knocked again.

"Rose, are you in there?" A small voice called out.

Shocked, Rose stopped crying and began to splash her face again. Visions of a long queue waiting for the bathroom while she was in there pathetically crying, and a prefect having to be fetched just the get the line moving, popped up in her head. She frantically began drying her face and answered in a more wobbly voice than she had hoped.

"Just a sec!"

She unlocked the door, intending to cover her puffy face and run out. But she ran straight into someone and landed on the floor.

"Rose? Are you ok?" It was Albus. She breathed a sigh of relief. Her best friend, she could trust him not to judge or go blabbing.

She looked behind her to see how silly she was, there was no queue of angry students.

"I'm fine." She lied as Albus helped to to stand. With his arm still around her, he lead to a quiet part of the corridor, near the exit doors.

"Tell me Rose, what's wrong?" He grabbed her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. She stared back.

"My grandparents." She sighed, there was no way to hide this from him. "My grandmother is dying and my grandfather fell down the stairs last summer, he can't walk anymore."

The cousins embraced, unaware that Scorpius was now listening in as he did not want to intrude.

"Why didn't you tell us? We could've comforted you!" He sighed and understanding dawned "And this is why you've been short tempered all year. Well, more so than usual." This made Rose give a small chuckle before she began crying again on his shoulder.

"Oh Albus," Rose whimpered. "You're one of the only people I can completely trust. I hope Hugo will open up to Lilly, I think it's hurting him more than its hurting me."

Scorpius was wounded. Did she not trust him as much as she trusted Albus? Sure, they were cousins and had known each other their entire lives, but his blind frustration led him to ignore that obvious fact as he stormed back to their compartment. Where, hopefully, Finely and Robin had left.

 **LETTERS OVER THE HOLIDAYS**

Rose and Albus wrote to each other, and Scorpius almost everyday. However there was no reply from Scorpius. He was still annoyed at what he had overheard Rose say to Albus. That Albus was the only person she could trust.

Bitter thoughts ran through the young boys mind. 'Was he not worth her trust? Was it because he was a Malfoy that she did not completely trust him? Did they secretly hate him, did they wonder why he was following them all the time? Was that why Rose had been so short tempered all year? Because he would not leave them alone.'

WEEK 2 OF THE HOLIDAYS. AFTER SCORPIUS' HOLIDAY TO FRANCE **.**

 _Scorpius,_

 _Hey! How's it going? How was your holiday in France?_

 _Just a reminder, my family and I are going to Hunstanton for the August 20th. Just confirming if you are could floo to our house, then we will get a muggle public transport to the beach!_

 _You haven't answered any of my letters, but I guess you must have been busy._

 _See you soon! Hopefully._

 _Albus_

WEEK 3 OF THE HOLIDAYS. SCORPIUS STILL AT HOME.

 _Scorpius_

 _Hi. Are you ok? Now I'm worried that I've mixed up the dates and you were actually in France last week as I sent my previous letter to you last Wednesday. And have had no reply._

 _I need a reply as to whether or not you are coming to the beach with my family._

 _Please come, Lily is driving me mad and I don't think I can stand another whole day without any escape._

 _Albus_

 _Albus_

 _I'm still at my grandparents' house. My grandfather seems to be his old self, although grandmother is getting weaker, she who me and Hugo are the other day._

 _Mum said it will be fine for me to go to the beach with you guys, just for a day. I'll come via floo. Hugo might come as he misses Lily, so at least they will leave us alone._

 _Is Scorpius coming? Have you heard from him? He hasn't written to me at all this summer, I know he may be on holiday, but I thought France was only for a week and Belgium is in two weeks time, but only for three days!_

 _Rose_

WEEK 4 OF THE HOLIDAYS. SCORPIUS STILL AT HOME.

 _Scorpius_

 _Answer us! What is going on?_

 _You specifically told us that this week and next week you are free, then you go to Belgium for three days, then you are free again._

 _We are worried about you._

 _Rose said she hasn't heard anything from you either._

 _Albus._

Scorpius sat at his desk, a pile of opened, but unanswered, letters in front of him. Four weeks had gone past and he had refused to answer his so called 'friends'. He looked at the picture they had given him last year for Christmas. They looked so happy, as if their friendship would never end. To his annoyance, Scorpius saw again that Rose had her arm around him and they shared an intimate look. He shook his head to wake up, Scorpius was ashamed that he kept on imagining the look in Rose's eyes.

It wasn't Albus he was mad at, he could see that now. He had just been jealous of the bond that he had with Rose and so he was giving him the silent treatment. Albus had said nothing about Rose going to the beach with them, so Scorpius figured that she might not be coming.

For the first time during the holidays, Scorpius combed his hair. A sign to himself that he was going to pull himself together, get over himself and write back. To Albus. Not Rose, he was sure their friendship was over.

"Scorpius!" His mother called from the hallway. She did not sound too happy. "Young man you have some explaining to do!"

Scorpius ran out of his room and along the larger corridor. Only to realise that his mother was on the second floor, not the third, which he was on. He rolled his eyes and plodded down the stairs in a huff. She often would go to the top of the stairs on the third floor, call him, then return to where she was on the second or ground floor. This would trick him into thinking she was just around the corner and so he go to her quicker.

"Scorpius!" Astoria Malfoy looked up from the ever present piece of parchment which held lists of chores, meetings, appointments and reminders, then snapped as she saw her son sulking down the stairs. "Pull yourself together! You should be a proud young man, like your father. Now stand up straight." She said in a business like manner and Scorpius obeyed immediately. "Now," she stood in front of him, "I have had a letter from a Miss Weasley."

Scorpius turned pink, his eyes bulged and his shoulder drooped. They were in the sitting room along with his grandfather, Lucious Malfoy, who had heard the name Weasley and was outraged.

"A WEASLEY! How DARE they contact us? Why, we ought to go out and teach them a lesson! Filthy family! THAT ARTHUR WEASLEY made my life a living HELL when I worked at the Ministry! They take for granted that their children have jobs! Why if only I had the instinct, twenty years ago, just to-"

"Sir," Astoria interrupted her father in law politely, although through gritted teeth. "May I _remind_ you," she was now beginning to sound more patronising. "That your grandson is indeed friends with Miss Weasley and a Mr Potter. He does not hold the same prejudices as you," she let slip some of her anger and she concluded, "and quite frankly I'm proud of him."

She took hold of Scorpius's arm and led him out of the sitting room and into the small dining room which the used daily, but was now empty.

"Scorpius, this Weasley is worried about you. She said that you have not been answering any letters from her or Potter. Has there been an incident? Are you no longer friends?" Her eyes pierced his, he would not be able to lie.

"No, it's, it's just, that." He sighed heavily. "I haven't been answering their letters. It's not Albus, it's Rose. I see that now. She never really trusted me and I feel like our friendship is just a nuisance to her. I feel like she wants to be with Albus, I mean they're cousins and have been best friends for their entire lives, but I'm in the way and so she just tolerates me."

The young man was disheartened now that he had got it all out and admitted to himself how he really felt. "I feel like an idiot, thinking that we were actually friends." He then went on to explain what he had over heard on the train, as he sat across from his mother at the table.

"My dear, do you think that possibly she meant you as well?"

"Huh?"

"She said Albus was _one_ of the only people she could trust. Is it possible she meant you as well? I mean, you said yourself, that when you returned to the compartment, those two other students were still there. Weasley probably didn't have a chance to speak to you. Plus, you and I both know that at once you are in a mood, it is very hard to communicate with you."

Scorpius, of course, knew that his mother was right. He hated that. So he stormed off to his bedroom, ignoring the continued cries of outrage from his grandfather, and set out to write back to Albus.

 _Albus_

 _I'm sorry for not answering any of your letters. I was mistaken and have believed, for quite some time now, that you, Rose and myself were not true friends and therefore I saw no point in replying. I apologise. I found that not writing back just made my foul mood even worse._

 _To answer your question, yes. I would love to join you and your family at, sunny unny (as I believe you called it). But that is only if you are still willing to have me. I understand if not as I have not been completely loyal._

 _I would appreciate a reply. However, regarding my behaviour towards you and Rose, I am not expecting one. If you do not reply, I will assume not to floo to your house on the 20th?_

 _Scorpius_

 _Scorpius_

 _Do you know how annoyingly pompous and wimpy you sounded in that letter? I mean, seriously, it's just not like you! Never mind. I hope you will be back to your normal self by next week! See you then._

 _Please reply to Rose. She won't stop asking me if I've heard from you. It's getting annoying. Every letter begins with a paragraph of different scenarios, dangers or predicaments you may have gotten yourself into that has prevented you from answering us._

 _Albus_

 _P.s. It's called sunny Hunny! Not unny. It's actual name is HUNSTANTON. With an H. See? With an H._

 _Rose_

 _I'm sorry for not replying. I have been doing exactly what you told me not to do. I doubted our friendship. I'm sorry. I didn't have a chance to ask whether you were ok, as you seemed upset on the train when you mention your grandparents, because I was in such a bad mood. I hope your family is well, and I hope to see you at the beach with the Potters._

 _Scorpius_

Before sending his letter to Rose, he ran to fetch his wizard camera. On it he had pictures saved of each of the trio. James had taken them while they were sitting on the floor outside the Gryffindor common room, which was where they often sat on Friday and Saturday evenings before curfew.

Each photo seemed to reflect each of the trio perfectly. One of Albus trying to catch a chocolate frog, once caught he looked at the card, only to realise it was his father, 'I've got loads of these' the photographed Albus mouthed.

One of Rose reading her book, sitting cross legged and her back against the wall, she looks up to see the photo being taken, then rolls her eyes and gives a small smile.

And the final one was of Scorpius, looking like his normal straight faced self until suddenly Rose and Albus enter the picture from either side of him, they all smile, and Albus waves, into the camera before it restarts to a impassive and unfeeling Scorpius, alone.

Scorpius called out for their house elf, Petit, who flashed into his room instantly.

"You called master Scorpius?" She squeaked.

"Yes, would you please have these photos developed. Three copies of each one." The house elf beamed at his kindness, especially compared to his grandparents or father, and was gone with the camera with a click.

Scorpius, despite finding Petit useful, didn't like the fact that they owned a house elf. He knew that his mother also felt uncomfortable owning an intelligent being and forcing them into slavery, as a result, Scorpius and his mother were quite kind to Petit. The only reason they hadn't freed her was simply because she was a gift from Scorpius's grandparents and new it would offend them.

Scorpius vowed to himself that the day his grandparents died, was the day he would free Petit. That or the day he moved out, however he wasn't completely sure if he could get away with freeing the house elf before his grandparents were dead.

It was soon time for dinner, and still no photos from Petit. The Malfoy's sat in almost complete silence in the small dining room on the ground floor.

" _We_ never used this room." Narcissa Malfoy mumbled. "We always used the _large_ dining room on a day to day basis."

Scorpius and Draco looked up to see Astoria restraining herself from replying angrily to such a snide comment.

Draco answered for her. " _We_ find that this gives a more family feel to meal times. _We_ believe our son deserves that much."

And that was it. No one said anything else for the entire meal, then all went about their business around the manor.

Scorpius vowed that he would never have his parents living with him when he had his own family. He would find his own home, away from Malfoy manor. It often scared him, the emptiness and darkness of it all. But he still waned to live close enough for the occasional visit. He didn't hate them, it was just that he saw how difficult his grandparents could be.

Eventually Petit jumped into the third floor library, where Scorpius was. There were only three rooms on the third floor; his room, the bathroom and a very large library. The second and ground floors were split into east and west wings with the stairs in the middle.

"Here are the photographs master Scorpius. I'm sorry it took so long." She squeaked and started to shake, tears coming. "Mr Malfoy was angry that Petit was out and almost late to make dinner," she was referring to his grandfather. "Petit had to burn her hand on the frying pan twice!"

"Petit! No need to do that!" Scorpius sympathised with the house elf. "It was my fault, sorry. Go and take care of your hand." And off she went, but not until after she had stopped crying and beamed up at Scorpius.

He ran to his room and placed three of the photographs in frames and the others he stuck into two pocket sized books. Placing the books in his Hogwarts trunk, so not to forget to bring them with him and the frames on the shelf next to his photo that Rose and Albus had given him last year.

He sent his letter to Rose as his owl, Vincent, had returned. Scorpius decided that he would save the photo albums for birthday presents, as Rose's birthday was in October and Albus' in November.

 **AT THE BEACH**

Scorpius arrived at the Potter's house at 9:30am precisely, Hugo and Lily were in the living room as he arrived. They said a quick hello and ran off to find Albus.

"Scorpius! Thanks for coming. I know I complain about my siblings, but James is away and Lily has Hugo, so I'd be kind of alone. I mean Lily and Hugo are really close."

"Like you and Rose. You know, Lily probably feels the same way when Rose is here." Harry said as he passed by the open door and into the kitchen carrying a large pile of dry folded clothes and after briefly greeting his son's friend.

"Oh, that reminds me, Rose isn't coming. She said something about her grandmother but, Hugo is here so, it can't be too bad. What did you say to her?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we talked over the phone, it's a muggle communication device, and she didn't sound that great. But she did mention that you had written to her."

Scorpius was at loss for words, he had no idea what he done wrong. Then again, he had ignored his friends for a few weeks, Albus was over it but Rose always reacted differently to her calm cousin. He would write to her again when he got home, check up on her. Well, she did write to his mother. And that was before he answered Albus or Rose! No, she wasn't upset about the lack of response from him. It had to be something else.

Scorpius managed to put it out of his mind and have a good day with the Potters. He got to know Lily and Hugo, who would be coming up to Hogwarts in the coming year, and heard many stories from Mr Potter about his job as an auror at the ministry.

They went by muggle train and then by muggle bus. It was one of those few days in an English summer when it was sunny all day, and then rained as they were leaving. But overall it was a good day. Compared to last time they went to the beach, Harry and Ginny Potter seemed more at ease with Scorpius. This may have been because they were getting to know the boy for who he was, Albus's friend, rather than just the 'Malfoy boy'.

Scorpius wrote to Rose, but was given no reply. They did not communicate for the rest of the summer.


	3. Chapter 3 THIRD YEAR

**THIRD YEAR. 21 YEARS LATER**

 **DIAGON ALLEY, WEEK BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS AGAIN**

Scorpius waved to his friends in Flourish and Blott's Bookstore.

"Hey. It feels like I haven't seen you in ages! How was Belgium with Parkinson?"

"The usual. Our family's travel together, stay in the same house and have meals together, but other than that we stay separated. My mum doesn't really like Lloyd's mum. This annual holiday is more of an escape from my grandparents."

Albus chuckled at Scorpius's bored expression when retelling this.

"Where are we meeting Rose?"

"We're not. Her family are getting supplies tomorrow." Albus shrugged, not noticing the slight disappointment on Scorpius's face as he turned to search for the book required for charms lesson.

"I assumed that your families did everything together."

"Yeah, well, they are still at their muggle grandparents's house." Albus sounded resigned. "I haven't seen Rose at all this holiday. I miss her." He shrugged again then suddenly looked up at his friend, "you can't tell her that! She'll get big headed and never let me forget!"

 **GRANGER HOUSEHOLD**

"Hermione, you really should go now. The kids need school supplies. Plus Hugo should be all excited for his new school year!" Hermione's mum, Mary, beamed down at her grandson whom she was hugging at the front door. Hugo skipped off the the car after hugging both grandparents.

"Rose, have fun now dear." Hermione's dad, John, could be heard saying from just behind the front door. "Look after your brother, and stop worrying! We'll be fine. Your grandmother and I aren't going anywhere for a long time." The young girl sniffed, trying to hold back her tears as she kissed Mr Granger on the cheek. "Now wheel me to the front door so I can wave good bye."

Rose complied, then kissed her grandmother on the cheek after a long hug, then ran to the car.

Ron shook hands with his father in law and hugged his mother in law, promising them both that he would take good care of their daughter, then waited in the car in the passenger seat.

"Mum, dad, I-" Hermione choked and wiped away tears. "I love you. We will see you at Christmas!"

With one last hug to both of them, she hopped into the drivers seat and pulled away. The entire family waving to the paralysed old man and the weakening old woman, who waited until the car had completely disappeared to return inside.

"That was a hard goodbye." John spoke after a moment of silence.

"Maybe the last goodbye, for me." Mary sighed and carefully lowered herself on to the sofa.

"Now now Mary, no need to talk like that." He pulled up beside his wife and put an arm around her. "We'll get through this. Focus on the positives!"

"Yes." Mary smiled. "A bright and successful witch as a daughter, a caring husband who loves her, and two beautiful grandchildren."

"Rose is very smart, just like our Hermione. And Hugo is quite loud and fun, isn't he?"

"At least they have Arthur and Molly, and not just burdened with us as their only grandparents."

 **HOGWARTS EXPRESS**

James, Lily, Albus and Scorpius had found a compartment with enough room for Hugo and Rose to join. They were running late. No one had seen them arrive and they were all worried as the train left the station, however Rose and Hugo had got on, just as the doors were closing and were now searching for their cousins.

"Hugo?" Rose whispered to her brother who was walking in front of her.

"Yeah."

"Ex-excited for your first year?" She stuttered, trying to stop worrying.

"Yeah. Excited about the sorting hat too." He suddenly stopped and spun around to look his sister straight in the eyes, they were the same height. "What about you?"

"It's not my first year, Hugo." She smirked. But she knew what he was getting at. "No, I'm not excited, I'm worried. That might have been the last time we ever see them together!"

Hugo hugged his sister. Despite being overly friendly, Hugo didn't hug his sister a lot, so this was special.

"I'm worried too." He admitted as he broke the hug.

"You don't look it." Rose mumbled.

"I have a resting happy face, remember?" He weakly grinned at her. "Believe me, I'm hurting inside. 'Just put on a happy face and don't make our grandparents feel like a burden'. That's pretty much what I've been telling myself to do all summer."

"Dad's been doing that too. The other night I heard mum crying, I looked in and dad was trying to comfort her, he looked worried sick."

"Mum probably won't get much sleep again."

The siblings sighed and put on a brave face. Little did they know how close they were to the compartment of their cousins and Scorpius. They had overheard everything. Hugo pretended that nothing had happened and was his usually bubbly and loud self, which Lily was glad of as she no longer was the chattiest in the compartment.

Rose read her book the entire way, which was not completely unusual, but this time she did not look up for a long time. She sat between James and Albus who were taking it in turns to have an arm around her. At last Lily succeeded in engaging Rose in a conversation, but only after they changed into their robes.

"So what electives are you taking?" Lily was referring to the two subjects which third year students could choose to do along with the rest of their usual subjects.

Rose looked up from her book to see everyone staring at her expectantly with a hint of sympathy which they were trying to hide, apart from Scorpius who refused to meet her eyes.

"Oh, umm. I'm taking Ancient Runes and Care of magical creatures. I was going to take them all but mum advised against it." She added sheepishly, then returned to her book. Her cousins were still watching her and so she slammed her book shut in a huff and over exaggerated staring back. "What?! I'm not some delicate flower that you need to worry about! I'm fine!" And with that she stormed out of the compartment.

"Hey Rose!" Finley Norwood met her in the corridor, a friend of Roses from Hufflepuff. "Want to join me in this compartment? I was with Robin, Felix and Maggie Stirling, they live next door to me, but they got in an argument and are now on opposite sides of the train."

"Oh, sure." Rose smiled kindly at the boy.

"Do you know Felix?"

"I'm not sure that I -"

"He's Robin's twin. Not identical of course. And he's in our year and in Hufflepuff with me. I don't really know him that well. Bit of a loser if you ask me. Maggie and Robin agree. More of a nerdy type. Loves playing chess and mad serious about collecting chocolate frog cards. Oh and some sort of muggle stuff too. Not sure what it is though. He's taking muggle studies this year and something else nerdy I expect. I'm doing divination and Care of magical creatures this year." He waffled as Rose sat in front of him. "You?"

"Care of magical creatures and ancient runes."

"What about Albus?"

"Divination and muggle studies." Finley opened his mouth to speak but Rose put her hand up to silence him. "And before you ask, I have no idea what Scorpius is taking."

"Muggle studies and Care of magical creatures." A calm voice entered before its owner. Scorpius sat next to Rose.

They sat there in an awkward silence for a moment before Finley came up with an excuse to leave. "Oh, err. I should check on Robin."

"No wait!" Rose called out, but he was gone. She stood up and moved so that she was now sitting opposite to Scorpius. "Nice of you to talk to me."

"I could say the same." He shrugged.

"No, no you couldn't. You see, I wrote to you every day. In reply, I got one lousy apology." She now raised her voice and started pacing. "WHAT, IN MERLINS NAME, DID YOU MEAN WHEN YOU SAID THAT YOU DID EXACTLY WHAT I TOLD YOU NOT TO?" She stared daggers into him.

"I mean, I doubted our friendship."

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I SAID!" She suddenly calmed as she realised how confused Scorpius had become. She groaned, then sat down and faced him. "I meant don't doubt me. Me, Scorpius." She took hold of his hand and forced him to look at her.

Tingles ran through his spine, he found it hard to breath. Memories of their kiss in the previous year came flooding back.

"A Malfoy, a Potter and a Weasley. It sounds like the start of a bad joke. We were doomed to doubt our friendship from the beginning! I meant don't doubt me. Because, after all that's said and done, who a cares about old family rivalries or even a silly last name, we are friends with each other not family connections. Don't doubt me because I will always want be your friend, no matter how often we doubt our friendship. Believe me, it's going to happen a lot. No one can see past who our parents are and so no one can understand why we are friends." She let go of his hand and awkwardly hugged him across the aisle between the seats. "Hugo is better at hugs than me. Anyway," she stood up and Scorpius followed suit, "this goes for your friendship with Albus too. We both like you for you." She reached up and gave a friendly flick to his forehead, "stupid Malfoy." They both smiled and rejoined their original compartment.

But Albus was standing in the corridor talking to Rory Green, the Slytherin quidditch captain who was in his fifth year, and were blocking the way back to the compartment.

"Potter, you've got to come to the quidditch tryouts. Imagine, Potter versus Potter in the Slytherin Gryffindor game!" Rory lazily rubbed the back of his head. "Just come and tryout. You'll be just like your brother."

"Seriously Green, quidditch isn't my thing. I prefer to watch it rather than play, you've got the wrong Potter brother here. I can fly and stay on a broom but that's about it."

"Nonsense. You're a Potter. You should be more like your brother." Green rolled his eyes. Albus's resistance was getting on his nerves.

"Hey," Rose angrily interrupted. "If he doesn't want to do it, he doesn't have to. It's not up to you. And why should he be like James?! He should be himself. You can't go around telling people to be someone else simply because its inconvenient to you that their brother is in another house."

Green rolled his eyes again and lazily strutted through the corridor, shouting at some first years to get out of his way.

 **FIRST LESSON OF CARE OF MAGICAL CREATURES**

"Now class," Professor Nye, teacher of care of magical creatures and head of Hufflepuff, said in a booming voice. They were standing outside the forbidden forest, where a rather tall cage had been set up for the class. It was covered by a large cloth and nothing could be heard from it other that the occasional, very dull and quiet, scratch. Not exactly exciting for a first lesson.

"As you may have noticed, the houses are all mixed for this class as not many people choose this subject." Honoratus Nye looked around at his fifteen students, "in fact, this is the largest class I have had in a long time!" He cheerfully boomed on.

"What's with the big voice?" Finley whispered to Rose.

"Sonorous charm." Rose and Scorpius answered at the same time and shared smug grins.

"He's partially deaf and-" Rose was interrupted by Scorpius who finished her sentence.

"-he thinks no one can hear him outside."

"Well I knew that." Finley scoffed. "He is my head of house, it's just that he's never used that -" he forgot what charm they told him was being used. "That, that, that big voice before."

"Miss Weasley and Mr Malfoy, since you are happily chatting at the back there, I hope that you two will be the first to explain what creature these are." The entire class rolled their eyes, they all knew that the talking textbooks would be able to tell him EXACTLY what whatever it was, was. "Just as soon as I-" Nye began to loudly mumbled as he tugged at the cloth covering the cage.

There were a few gasps as two brightly coloured birds were revealed. One was orange and the other was lime green.

"Miss Weasley, you first. What are-"

"Fwoopers, sir" she interrupted

"And wh-"

"The Fwooper is an African bird and have long been a provider of fancy quills. They also lay brilliantly patterned eggs. The Fwooper song, although at first is-"

"That's enough. Very good, thank you." Professor Nye interrupted Rose this time. He tried to look annoyed at the fact that she had both interrupted him and shown him up for picking on her, however he couldn't conceal his joy that Rose had such an enthusiasm for magical creatures. "Mr Malfoy, the Fwooper song…" He peered expectantly over his glasses.

"The Fwooper song, although at first is enjoyable, will eventually drive the listener to insanity." The entire class took a step back from the cage. "The Fwooper is consequently sold with a silencing charm upon it." The class simultaneously gave a small sigh of relief. "But the charm would need a monthly reinforcement."

"Yes, yes. Ten points to Gryffindor and Slytherin. Now Fwooper owners require licences, as the creatures must be handled responsibly. As you may have guessed. Fortunately, these birds came to us with a recently renewed silencing charm upon them and will be returned to their owner in two weeks. In the short time we have them, your homework will be to write notes on what you observe in class. We will be watching the behaviour of the Fwoopers when encaged and when released for exercise. We shall be studying them closely in our next few lessons. If you wish to watch them a little outside of class, you have my permission to go to Hagrid," Professor Nye pointed to Hagrid's hut. "as he will be looking after them for me. He is also quite and expert on all animals stance and colourful."

Rose smiled at the thought of Hagrid caring for the colourful creatures.

The lesson seemed to drone on. The class sat in silence and watched the birds do nothing.

Finley Norwood was getting bored and started playing with the grass, everyone seemed to be muttering to each other. Unlike Rose and Scorpius, who were watching the birds closely, engaged by them. Finely seemed to find this highly amusing and started pointing it out to the class mates around him, who all started giggling at them. Many times Professor Nye had to shush them.

Finally the bell rang and all the students stood up with a groan, they had been sitting for too long, at least they had lunch next.

On their way to the hall, Rose and Scorpius were enthusiastically discussing how interesting the Fwoopers were. Finely overheard and shouted at them, to impress his friends, from behind.

"Oi nerds!"

Rose was shocked at the sudden change in Finley as he was usually quite friendly.

"Oi! Tell me again about your fascination with those birds. How their lack of movement requires four pages of notes. His friends sniggered and he commented loudly to them. "Oh I bet they do it! I bet they both hand in about four pages worth of notes just about today's waste of a, a 'lesson' Is that what Nye said it was, a lesson? More like torture by silence!"

Rose was just about to turn and confront him when Scorpius second guessed her actions and grabbed her arm, forcing her to keep walking. "Don't rise to it." He whispered.

"Well," she huffed quietly to him "I mean-" she groaned and finally got her words out. "Merlin's beard! How was that not interesting? The Fwoopers were obviously struggling with their inability to sing! Oppressed because someone wants to own them!" She whispered harshly.

"Oh, oh! They're holding Hands!" Finley was shouting again.

Rose quickly yanked her arm away from Scorpius's touch with more force than she needed.

"Oi nerds! Dan here," referring to Daniel Layton who was in Ravenclaw. "seems to think you like those dull, stuck up birds so much 'cause you can relate to them!" He let out an over exaggerated laugh.

Daniel looked embarrassed and elbowed Finley in the stomach.

Rose clutched her wand as her nostrils flared. They were nearing the courtyard now, which lead to the hall, where quite a few students were trying to make their way inside. Both Rose and Scorpius were hoping that Finely would stop shouting.

"You relate to stiff, old and boring birds 'cause you guys are just the same. Stiff and boring love birds." Many other students who had overheard the conversation started laughing too, staring at Scorpius and Rose. The latter had turned bright red. "Can you imagine? Another wizard war breaks out during their wedding." He had gone too far. "Parents vs parents, at each other's throa-"

"Aguamenti!"

A clear jet of water shot out of Rose's wand. She had aimed at Finley's feet which made the grass slippery. He grabbed Leyton as he fell on his back, which took his friend down with him. They both ended up laying on the ground, groaning and covered in mud. With another flick of her wand their hair turned the same colours as the Fwoopers, orange and lime green. Neither of them were hurt, just shocked and humiliated. People were laughing even more now, but at Finley and Daniel not Rose and Scorpius.

Rose was still furious and stormed off in a huff up to the Gryffindor common room.

"Rose!" Scorpius called after her as he tried to follow. However, so many students were going towards the hall for lunch in the opposite direction and he lost her. She did not come back down for lunch.

At the Slytherin table, Albus and a few other students were pestering Scorpius to tell the story again and again as gossip travelled fast.

"Is Rose ok?" Albus turned to him after the mass of people left, he was very serious and concerned for his cousin. Before Scorpius could answer, Lily and Hugo came running to the Slytherin table.

"Scorpius!" Lily shouted in panic. She realised some Slytherins in her year had turned to look at her and she gave them a menacing face which made them roll their eyes and look away. She continued in a quieter tone from then on. "Is it true, what happened?"

"Of course it's true! Have you not met Rose?" Hugo sarcastically remarked. "She's been trying to practise aunt Ginny's bat-bogey hex on me all summer. All the same, what exactly happened?"

Scorpius was forced to explain what happened, again. Although he did not mind too much as they were genuinely concerned for Rose, unlike others who were just interested in the gossip.

"Where is she now?" Albus asked as his eyes searched the Gryffindor table.

He saw his cousins laughing and talking loudly at how brilliant they thought Rose's reaction was. They were proud to be related to such a feisty red head.

"In her dorm." Lily replied. "She won't talk to anyone, she wants to be alone. James tried to make her come down and come to lunch but," her voice trailed off.

"She'll be fine." Scorpius assured the two frowning first years, who both nodded in agreement.

"You know Rose, she just needs to cool off and calm down. She'll be back to her normal self in no time." Albus patted Hugo on the shoulder. "Although, she might not want to talk today. You know, people might ambush her with questions. Best to give her some space."

"Malfoy, follow me." Professor Longbottom, teacher of herbology and head of Gryffindor marched over to the Slytherin table. Still with orange and green hair, soggy and covered in mud, Finley and Daniel were trailing behind him. Scorpius obeyed and they were all taken to Longbottom's office.

"Scorpius, if you would wait outside the door while I talk to Leyton and, I'm sorry, what was you name?" Professor Longbottom turned to Finley, who was looking none too pleased to be so humiliated again, this time at the lack of recognition.

"Norwood."

"Very well. In you come." Scorpius couldn't hear what was being said inside and so he waited in complete silence for about ten minutes before Longbottom called him in as Daniel and Finley trudged out. Their hair was back to its natural colour. If Scorpius was not mistaken, they looked even more annoyed than before.

"Now, Malfoy. I would ask you to sit down but, um." Scorpius looked at the seats in front of the desk, they were dripping and had the odd clumps of mud stuck to them.

"I think I'll stand, sir."

"Good, good. This won't take long. Rose is in my house, that is why I am the one asking you questions. I am sure you have been asked plenty of times already in the past half an hour, but I need you to tell me what happened. From when you left your lesson with Professor Nye, to when you entered the hall."

Scorpius quickly and efficiently retold the story. And for the last time, he told himself.

"That sounds about right. You may go."

Scorpius hesitated. "Um, if it's not - I mean, I was wondering, well."

Longbottom understood what the boy was trying to say.

"Leyton and Normwood told me that Rose tried several hexes on them, all of which they managed to dodge, before she performed the Aguamenti charm. At first she aimed for their faces, missed and the water soaked the ground. She then slipped on the very puddle she made, screamed and 'accidentally' turned their hair orange and green. before running off crying."

Scorpius scowled at the ground, angry that they would tell such lies, he was about shout that it was all a lie, when he saw Longbottom's face. The Professor was no fool.

"You don't believe them." Scorpius stated the obvious.

"No. I am more inclined to believe the student who looked me in the eye when relaying the story, rather than the boys who talked over each other and kept on changing the so called 'facts'. I don't believe Rose is likely to be so clumsy either. And can you imagine Rose crying? I haven't seen her cry since she was only just bigger than a quaffle."

"Well..." Scorpius sighed, a small smile threatened to show. Rose did have a way for knocking things over in excitement or tripping down the stairs when she was going too fast.

"Well I know she can be a bit clumsy, but not when it comes to magic, she is the daughter of the brightest witch of my generation, for Merlin's sake! She is proving herself to be just as talented. I went to school with both her parents and know them quite well. Rose is just like her mother, she wouldn't make mistakes." Scorpius gave a small smile. Rose would be pleased to hear that. "She will, however, have to serve detention."

"But sir-" Scorpius exclaimed before he was interrupted.

"No buts. Malfoy, I like to be as fair as possible, I will make sure Leyton and Norwid are also punished. She was provoked and had very good reason to do what she did." Longbottom frowned. "Oh, shouldn't have said that. Oh well." He smiled and continued, "as much as I would be willing to punish only the two boys and reward Rose for standing up for herself, and even though she did not harm anything but their pride, I cannot allow students to believe they can hex each other without consequence. Plus, I meet up with her parents and the Potters a lot, especially for birthdays, I would not want to show favouritism."

Scorpius nodded. The professor was right.

As it was, Daniel and Finley were given the chore of organising two enormous files, without magic, filled with every detail of every library book that had been taken out over the past five years. This took up four hours on two Saturdays.

Whereas Rose had a detention with Professor Longbottom, she had to help him reorganise the herbology tools, as first years tended to put them back in the wrong places. This took little over an hour and Rose seemed perfectly cheerful afterwards as she and Professor Longbottom got along well, he had known her all her life. He was practically another uncle.

The next morning, it was a Saturday, Scorpius and Albus sat with Rose at the Gryffindor table, as they did most days. She had seemed back to her usual cheerful self, until the post arrived. She went white as a sheet as Pocket, her barn owl, flew nearer and nearer. She shut her eyes as something dropped in front of her and almost spilt her tea, luckily Albus steadied the mug.

"Rose?" Albus questioned as he tried to give her the post. "Rose?" She wouldn't open her eyes.

She wished she could apparate out of school then and there. Suddenly it dawned on Scorpius, as he had been as confused as Albus. As he had received a howler in his first year, he knew how humiliating and condescending it was.

"Rose," Scorpius put his arm around her shoulders and spoke in a calm voice. "Rose it's not a howler. Just a letter and the daily prophet."

Albus's head shot up and he stared at his friend. 'How the hell did you know that that was what she was scared of?' His eyes seemed to ask.

Rose gingerly picked up the letter and opened it, breathing out one long breath at the same time.

Meanwhile Albus picked up Rose's copy of the Daily Prophet.

"It's from dad." Rose said as she finished the letter. Hugo and Lily had now joined them at the table.

"Oh man, a letter from dad?" Hugo interjected. "What? No howler from mum?"

"Well of course not! All Rose did was stand up for herself. Don't be an idiot Hugo, she did nothing wrong." Lily rolled her eyes.

"He said that mum wanted to send a howler." Said Rose. Hugo sent a 'I told you so' look to Lily, which granted him another rolling of the eyes. "Dad told mum that he would send a letter instead, he had a howler from grandma Weasley once, and what he did was far worse. Basically he said that I could've handled with the situation better but he's secretly glad I set Norwood straight. But I'm not allowed to tell mum the last bit."

They all, except Scorpius, chuckled. Knowing Hermione so well, that they were sure Ron would be in as much trouble as Rose.

"Yeah I can imagine Uncle Ron not wanting to send a howler." Roxanne commented as all Rose's cousins that were in Gryffindor had overheard.

"Well done Rose! Humiliated those kids and got away with it!" James laughed and shouted at Rose as he and Lorcan left the hall. Both were proudly shouting in the corridor that Rose had gotten away with it. Lucy, their prefect cousin in Ravenclaw loudly told them to stop shouting and took points away from Gryffindor.

Fred and Lucy then came into the hall, Fred was also in his fifth year and very close with his cousin Lucy, grinned at her. Although Lucy was trying to look disapproving.

"Wait, you got off with just a warning from your dad?" Scorpius was amazed and they all stared at him. "I got a howler just because I was friends with you! I almost got a second one when they found out what sub-" he realised how loud he was becoming and stopped himself. "oh never mind." He muttered. "See you later, I've got a charms essay to write." he sighed and strolled off to the Slytherin common room.

"What was all that about?!" Albus exclaimed and threw his arms wide to emphasise his question, once he had caught up with Scorpius in the empty corridor.

Scorpius ignored his friend and continued to walk to the common room.

"Scorpius! Listen to me! Scorpius." Albus charged after Scorpius and put his hand on his shoulder to stop him. Scorpius refused to turn around and look Albus in the eye.

"Scorpius, mate. What's going on? You can talk to me, I'll understand."

"No you won't!" Scorpius growled as he tugged away his shoulder. "You have such a perfect, happy and loving family. How could you ever understand?"

"What? Scorpius, your family love you." Scorpius finally looked at his friend, seeing the honest look in his eyes. "I see it all the time at the train station. And don't they write to you everyday?"

"You weren't meant to repeat that ever again." Scorpius scowled.

They had made the pact in their first year, Albus would never tell anyone that Scorpius received daily letters from his mum and Scorpius would never tell anyone that Albus kept a lucky teddy bear under his bed.

"Scorpius, there's no one here." Albus raised and eyebrow and tried not to smile at his friends paranoia.

Scorpius felt embarrassed that he had been so quick to judge and criticise his friend. He turned slightly pink and stared at his feet.

"Hey, it's fine." Albus chuckled which made Scorpius's shame disappear. Everything was a joke to Albus, that's why he was so easy to be relaxed around. "You know I would never tell anyone." He patted his friend on the back.

They both leant against the wall and slid down until the were sitting. Just staring at the staircase which lead down the the Slytherin common room.

"What happened in the hall Scorpius? Lily and Hugo were confused and Rose feels like she did something wrong. You'll be pestered with apologies from her all weekend now."

They sat in silence for a minute or two as Scorpius worked out what to say. He couldn't not tell Albus, he was his best friend. There wasn't anything wrong, just he was very aware of how different they were.

"My mum always says that you have to choose your battles."

"Choose your battles?"

"There are so many arguments to be had between my conservative grandparents and my mum. Some things she just has to let go, otherwise they would constantly be at each other's throats. I know my parents and my grandparents love me. It's just that your family show it. My family will find any fault. My grandparents especially, and sometimes my dad, have huge issues with my choice of friends. He hates you guys." He sighed and looked at Albus, who was staring ahead thoughtfully. Still giving his 100% attention. "I was annoyed because Rose's dad cared so much about not embarrassing her, that he only gave her a warning letter. Both of your parents don't seem to mind about our friendship, whereas my family are against it. I got a howler from my grandfather when he found out I was friends with a Potter and a Weasley. Mum wrote to me at the start of the year saying that she had to talk grandfather out of sending me another howler, once they found out that I was taking muggle studies and care of magical creatures. She said that dad wasn't helping either, he's not thrilled at my choices. He never is. But he stays silent."

"He saved my dads life once." Albus said absently after a few moments

"What? Dad said he told me everything."

"Yeah. It was when my dad, uncle Ron and aunt Hermione were taken to Malfoy manner. Your dad recognised my dad but didn't admit it to anyone. He lied to help my dad. And your grandmother saved my dad, she cared more about the safety of her son than helping the dark lord." Albus lazily turned his head to see Scorpius's shocked face. "If there's one thing your family have, it's love. It may not be obvious to everyone else, but the Malfoy's love each other."

"I-" Scorpius cleared his throat. "I've only ever been told that Draco Malfoy was a bully, my family have always been anti-anyone who wasn't from a pure blooded wizard family. I was taught that we no longer believe that, mum said it was ridiculous from the beginning and dad said it almost tore this family apart. Dad said too many lives were taken and too big a war was fought just because some people didn't accept others."

"My dad is ok with me being friends with you. But I guess, it's kind of weird for him. I mean, our dads were enemies all the way through Hogwarts, and haven't spoken since. But there's a mutual understanding of some sort. Mum is less ok about it, but she agrees that any old hatred between wizard families can only prevent the wizard world from being whole again."

"That's good to know. Your parents didn't speak much to me, but they weren't prejudice." Scorpius hesitated, but he didn't know why. He was almost too nervous to ask. "Umm. Wha- what about, umm, Rose's parents?"

"Aunt Hermione is on the same page as my mum. That no matter what, we should try to get along for future generations. To bridge a gap, to allow this anti-muggle born belief to disappear."

"And Mr Weasley? He's quite protective of Rose, isn't he? And I don't think he likes me that much."

"Yeah." Albus sighed. "He doesn't think much to you or your friendship with Rose." Scorpius stood in frustration and started pacing in front of Albus. "But as long as Rose is your friend, I don't think he'll say anything." He said as he stood and stabled Scorpius with a reassuring hand on the shoulder. "As long as Rose stands up for you, you have nothing to worry about."

 **SLYTHERIN COMMON ROOM, THAT NIGHT.**

Scorpius couldn't sleep. Albus had helped him calm down and now Scorpius couldn't wait until th morning when he could apologise to Rose, Hugo and Lily for his little out burst and just to explain that he was frustrated at his grandfather's prejudices. He was glad James wasn't there at the time, sometimes the eldest Potter could be quick to judge.

Scorpius was now sitting in front of a dwindling fire in the common room, 'Avis' he muttered, playing with a bird conjuring charms. One of his many advanced skills when it came to magic.

"Why are you up?" A snide voice came out of the darkness. Suddenly the birds disappeared and Scorpius spun in his chair to see Lloyd Parkinson behind him.

"I could ask the same question." He retorted.

"Trouble with your so called 'friends'? Did hot headed Weasel and little awkward Potter let you down?" Lloyd hissed with a twisted smile.

Scorpius didn't retaliate.

"I heard something interesting today." Lloyd continued to pester. "I heard that a certain person's family are very disappointed in both someone's choice of friends and choice of subjects. I mean, seriously." He spat. "Muggle studies and care of magical creatures? How pathetic! You're smart, you could have taken ancient runes or arithmancy!"

"I don't think it's any of your business. Stay away from me Parkinson. I like you better when you're no where near me." Scorpius scowled at the angry second year.

"You don't actually think your family could ever accept your friends? Especially after that little stunt Weasel pulled yesterday." Lloyd was malicious, he met Scorpius's icy glare. "You like her don't you? I'd say that you were in love, if you weren't so young and if your family weren't so incapable of such feelings. My mother told me that your father, although he is a great man, could never feel anything for anyone. He looked out for himself. He saw others as simply objects or connections."

Scorpius turned away and faced the fire. Lloyd was repeating all his doubts and fears.

"Your mother was mistaken." Scorpius spat back. Suddenly he calmed himself.

Scorpius tried to focus on what Albus had told him, that his family loved him. He ran this through his mind, 'My family love me. My family love me.' One by one images of his family popped up in his mind. His mother smiled, he could almost feel her warm embrace. His father nodded politely, but his eyes smiled. His grandmother waved with a watery smile. His grandfather sternly wiggled his walking stick at him, but lightly chuckled. Rose looked up and grinned-

Why was Rose in his head? He was thinking about his family. His family who loves him. Rose was a friend, just like Albus. Scorpius shook his head and decided that he needed sleep. Sleep would clear his mind.

And with that he went to bed. Pushing past Lloyd with a shove of the shoulder. Scorpius dreamed of his loving family, and Rose.

 **ROSE'S BIRTHDAY**

The next Saturday, just one week later, Rose was awakened by a pair of feet walking all over her bed. It was still dark outside but she could guess who it was.

"Ugh, Lily. What time is it?"

"About 6:30am."

Rose lit her wand to see her cousin beaming at her. "What do you want?" She grumbled.

"Well, Hugo and I were up at 6am. At, like, 20 past we woke up everyone-"

"Everyone?" Rose bumped her head on the wall. She groaned as she rubbed to back of her head. Making her fluffy mess of out of control hair worse. She took a quick scan of her room to see that the three girls she shared a dorm with were still asleep.

"Not everyone, just everyone."

"Lily, make more sense please."

"Ok, ok. All of our cousins are down stairs. In the common room. Oh and Lorcan"

"Lorcan?" The name puzzled Rose so early in the morning. Even though she had known the guy practically all her life.

"Yeah, Lorcan Scamander, Luna's eldest son. Oh! And Albus is downstairs. James some how knows a way into the Slytherin common room and grabbed Albus and Scorpius."

Rose suddenly sat up and was fully awake at the sound of his name. Annoyed with herself that a simple name was what got her out of bed. Although slightly confused, it was her birthday, Scorpius was there with all of her cousins. Everyone that she loved. Once she threw on a dressing gown, she and Lily ran down the stairs, Rose tripping on the last one and falling face first into the common room.

There they were, her cousins and Scorpius. Rose was delighted to see that they were not keeping their distance from Scorpius but instead were treating him as one of them.

"Hey guys." Rose smiled weakly as she jumped up from the floor.

Ignoring the pain in her arm and trying not to show it. They were all too busy trying not to wake up the entire house of Gryffindor but all trying to say happy birthday to Rose at once.

She sat on the floor between Albus and Hugo, surrounded by family. Opening her presents and noting down which one was from which member of the family. It took twenty minutes, but after that most went back to bed as it was before 7am.

Hugo and Lily decided to play wizard chess in the common room while Albus, Rose and Scorpius went out of the common room to sit in the hallway as the often did. Rose was now wearing her new knitted scarf from her grandmother. It was the Gryffindor red and had a small rose on one end.

"How's your arm?" Scorpius said in an almost whisper. Albus, barely awake, was leaning on Rose's shoulder.

"Oh, I didn't think anyone noticed. No it's fine now." She smiled at her friend.

"I haven't given you your present yet." He handed her a small brown parcel.

Rose pulled off the blue ribbon and unwrapped it to reveal a pocket sized book.

"Open it." Scorpius encouraged her. She complied.

Each page was just big enough for one moving wizard picture. The first picture was of the trio in their first year. The one taken outside, where Rose almost hugged Scorpius. The next was photo of Albus complaining about a chocolate frog card. The third photo was Rose, reading her book and then smiling at the camera. And the last one was a normal Scorpius, until Rose and Albus joined him on each side and he grinned. He rarely smiled so much.

"Oh Scorpius." Her grin grew wider. "Thanks."

"Happy birthday."

"Hey Scorpius." Rose hesitated, she felt she was intruding. "Umm, your birthday is in August, right?"

He nodded in reply.

"I don't think I've ever given you a present. I'm sorry. It's just that we never really see you in the holidays."

"I don't expect a gift. Your friendship is enough."

Rose chuckled. "That was really cheesy." she sighed. "You deserve much better friends. Ones who actually give you presents."

"I don't need anything Rose. Please listen to me."

Rose sighed and rested her head on Scorpius's shoulder. "What do you do on your birthday?"

"My mum always feels bad so she invites over Lloyd Parkinson but I always manage to convince her at the last minute to cancel him. We do presents before breakfast and then spend the day playing games and reading at home. It's peaceful and I enjoy it. Also arguing is banned on that day so my grandparents are silent most of the time to avoid provoking my mum."

They remained sitting in the cold corridor for another hour, before going down to breakfast then spending the day by the lake.

 **TRIP TO HOGSMEADE**

Almost two months after the 'incident' between Rose and Finley, there was a notice on the board in every common room about the next trip to Hogsmeade. And now, in the frosty fog of November, it was here.

"I can't wait to go to Honeydukes!" Albus excitedly exclaimed over breakfast at the Gryffindor table.

"What about seeing uncle George? He always makes a point to be in the Weasley store on the Hogsmeade weekends. Fred and Roxanne wrote to him the other day with all the dates." James reminded Albus.

"How many of your family are here?" Scorpius was amazed. He was an only child, his father was an only child. He had an aunt on his mother's side but she lived quite far away. The closest thing he had to a cousin was Lloyd Parkinson.

"Well there's us, then Rose and Hugo. Fred is in his fifth year and his sister Roxanne who's sitting down there," James pointed down the table, "she's in my year. Oh, Dominique, Uncle Bill's youngest daughter, she's also in my year but she's in Hufflepuff. Uncle Bill's eldest, Victoire, left two years ago. Then there's Uncle percy's eldest daughter Molly, in her last year, who is..." He strained his neck to look around the Gryffindor table for the red head with short, straight hair, "there! And there's Molly's sister, Lucy, she's also in her fifth year, but she's in Ravenclaw. And um, Loius, also uncle Bill's kid, he's the baby of the family and he won't be here for another two years." James waffled on. "Basically, anyone who is a Weasley, we're related. Mum was the only daughter and didn't keep her name so we're the only Potters."

"Yeah. And we're pretty much related to Nev- sorry professor Longbottom. He visits all the time and is quite close to mum and dad. Oh and the Scamanders. Lorcan is in my year too." James flicked a piece of toast at his best friend. "His brother Lysander is moving up next year."

"Are you still here?!" Rose exclaimed as she strolled up to the table.

"Yeah, we were waiting for you. Otherwise we'd be on the Slytherin table." Albus shrugged.

"Oh, you don't want to hang around with your family?" Lily scowled at her brother mockingly.

"Yeah. Not good enough for you?" James chimed in as he rubbed Albus's head, messing up his hair. "See you later guys. I got a date-type thing."

"James Potter has a date? What a surprise!" Rose commented sarcastically.

Scorpius almost smiled, they were a sweet family. Albus didn't notice, he was too busy trying to flatten his hair again.

"Who is it this time?" asked Molly

"Well if you must know, I'm going to the three broom sticks with Lucile Pond." James gave a charming, smug smile. "Off to meet her in the common room now." He messed with Albus's hair again and strutted off. "Later."

"Which one is she?" Said a curious Lily.

"Gryffindor keeper. She's in James' year. I'm pretty sure they dated last year too." said Fred. He turned to Rose, "Didn't he charm a blunger to follow Lucile and her boyfriend last year?"

"She's quite nice but she's like the rest of the school in the fact that that they can't understand anyone wanting to be friends with a Malfoy." Albus answered absently as he munched on his last few bites of toast.

"Are you meeting any special girl for the Hogsmeade trip?" Rose plunked herself down next to Albus, leaning forward enough to see past him and at Scorpius on the other side.

"I - um," Scorpius stuttered, he wasn't expecting this question. 'Does she actually care or just trying to pass the time until Albus finishes his orange juice so that we can leave? No, of course she doesn't really care. Well why would she care? And why would I care if she did?' Scorpius thought to himself. He took too long to answer, so Albus did it for him.

"No. He's not going with anyone."

"Ok, cool. That way we'll spend our first trip all together." Rose beamed at them.

"Wait, why didn't you ask me?" Albus had finished his breakfast at turned to look Rose dead in the eye. Scorpius peeped over his shoulder to see Rose's reaction.

"What?" She was as confused about Albus's sudden change in mood as Scorpius was.

"Well, why didn't you ask if I was going with anyone?"

"Because I know you're not."

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do. Because you would have told me."

"Well then," Albus realised she was right but he wasn't going to let Rose win every fight. "Why ask Scorpius?"

Rose stood. "Because Scorpius doesn't always share. He's a closed book. I can't do legilimency!" She marched out of the hall.

Scorpius and Albus made their way back to the dormitories in silence, to get their coats before going to Hogsmeade.

As Albus was digging in his trunk for a warmer pair of socks, Scorpius sat on his bed staring out the window into the fog.

Suddenly there was a bang as Albus slammed his trunk shut and stood in front of Scorpius.

"What?!" He almost growled at Scorpius. He didn't answer. Albus sat down on Scorpius's bed next to him. "Sorry. She just-" Albus sighed and flopped back.

"She's in a mood for our first trip."

"Yeah."

"You need to-"

"Apologise, I know, I flipped out for no reason which made her flip out for no reason. She's right. Why is she always right?" Albus had now gone back to his usual self and the boys made their way to the Gryffindor common room to meet Rose, if she hadn't left without them.

"She's always right." Scorpius mumbled, thinking about what she had said about him being a closed book.

They leant against the wall waiting for Lily to confirm whether Rose was in her dorm or not.

"Huh?"

"I said, she's always right."

Albus nodded, not exactly sure what his friend was getting at. Rose stormed out of the fat lady portrait and gave a menacing stare to the boys.

"You were right." Albus spoke softly. "But there was no need to storm off."

Rose sighed, folded her arms and rolled her eyes in reply. She knew she had overreacted. They took that as a 'I forgive you' and they left for Hogsmeade in a lighter mood.

Albus and Rose rushed into the Weasley store to visit their uncle George, Scorpius went in with them but hung back outside the office. He wasn't sure he was welcome.

After ten minutes he decided to stroll around the store to kill time. There, he suddenly ran into Rory Green. More like Rory Green ran into him, the Slytherin quidditch captain in his sixth year, was in a hurry to get out the door and smacked into Scorpius, toppling them both over and on to the cold pavement outside the shop.

"Woah!" Rory picked himself and offered Scorpius a hand, which was refused as the third year shakily stood up. "Malfoy, didn't see you there! Man, my bad."

Scorpius nodded in reply. It was Green's fault and he wasn't going to apologise just to be polite.

"Look, Malfoy, I was in a rush. Just found out one of my chasers has to go home for, like, the whole month 'cause her mum is sick, I need to find a new one in just two weeks." Rory lazily leant against the wall while saying this, cancelling out his statement about being in a rush. "Hey, your friend Potter wasn't the worst at tryouts."

"Who was worse?"

"Well there were a few first years who snuck in."

"Kind of expected he'd be a bit better though, don't you think? 'Cause you know, he's a Potter. His mum played for the Holyhead Harpies. Do you think you could ask him?" He didn't wait for a reply, he just gave a friendly, albeit awkward, pat on the shoulder and swaggered off saying. "Cheers Malfoy."

Scorpius did have to wonder whether Rory pushed him over simply to ask him to get Albus to tryouts. But he didn't have much time to reflect as Rose and Albus found him outside.

"Merlin's beard! Why were you waiting out here? It's so cold!" Albus complained as they made their way to the three broomsticks inn. "You know, you could've come in with us."

"If your so cold, then why didn't you bring a scarf? Or wear the jumper grandma gave you last Christmas?" Rose's motherly tone came out.

"Rory Green wants you to tryout for Slytherin chaser. One chaser has had to go home and he needs a replacement for two weeks time." Scorpius stated, after they found a seat in the inn and had ordered three butterbeers.

"Oh? Really? I did tryout at the start of the year, I wasn't that great. Loads of people were better than me." A surprised Albus remarked.

"Well, if you ask me, the person Green actually chose for chaser wasn't the best there. It's just that Rory Green was dating Anjelica at the time." Said Rose, which surprised Scorpius, he didn't know she was interested in quidditch.

"Yeah, Slytherin lost against Ravenclaw last week." Albus nodded at Rose. "You weren't there, were you?"

"No, I had homework which I put off because it was Phil's birthday."

"I don't think Anjelica Gully's mum is ill. He wouldn't look me in the eye, he lied." Scorpius added insightfully.

"I'm guessing they had an argument, they broke up or she wasn't happy that Green got house captain and she didn't. To be fair, she is in the year above him, she should've got captain." Albus added

"So, if there were people better than Albus, why did he ask you to ask him?"

"Exactly my question. James is the quidditch player in our family. Plus, you'd think Green would learn after Gully's disaster against Ravenclaw."

"You are a Potter."

Both Albus and Rose turned to Scorpius, who was quietly drinking from his mug.

"What has that got to do with anything?" Rose demanded forcefully.

"Green mentioned that because he's a Potter, he must be good."

"A lot of pressure on me then! Ugh. Seriously, are people still expecting certain things from us simply because of our parents?!" Albus slammed his empty mug on the table. The inn was so busy that it could barely be heard.

"Albus, you don't have to go." Scorpius pointed out the obvious.

"I won't then. I'd never live up to my family reputation." Albus sulked.

"No, don't say that." Scorpius changed from a straight face and took on an encouraging look. One that pleasantly surprised Rose into silence. "Albus, you shouldn't have to live up to any family name. People expected me to be like my father, to have pure blood prejudices like my family. I refuse to fall to that reputation. You live up to your own expectations. Do yourself proud in whatever you do. Your family don't care either way. We, your friends don't care, we're all proud of you either way. You set your own standards and everyone who loves you will support you unconditionally."

"Rose?" Scorpius called to her after she had been staring for a few minutes. "You ok?"

She only nodded in reply.

THAT NIGHT

Rose couldn't sleep. She was still feeling the embarrassment of being caught staring at Scorpius. He did not make fun of her or make a big deal out of it, Rose was grateful of that. And it wasn't a big deal, she told herself. She was just thinking and happened to stare at Scorpius unknowingly. But deep down she knew it was a lie. She had been staring at Scorpius because she had seen a softer, loving side of him. A side of him that made her like him even more. A side that really cared about Albus, it proved to Rose what a kind person he was despite his passive and stern exterior.

Rose blushed as she thought of the times they had accidentally brushed against each other's hands in potions and the two times she had hugged him. The time they kissed.… the second time they kissed…

She shook her head to get the memory out. They were friends and that was all. Yes he was good looking, tall and mysterious. Light blonde hair which was always perfect seemingly without effort and you could get lost in his misty greyish blue eyes. Yes he was kind, gentle and smart. But she didn't want to think of him in any other way but as a friend. What would Albus think if they were more than that? What would Scorpius' family think of her? What would her family think? Whether they say the have put their arguments behind them or not, Rose still doubted that her family would be completely accepting or happy about it.

Sure they loved her, and so certainly wouldn't disown her if there was anything more with Scorpius. But that wasn't the same as having a partner welcomed into the family with open arms. Her father could be especially protective and was the least accepting of Scorpius and Rose's friendship.

Rose slipped out of bed and quietly took out her packet of Berty Bots Every Flavour Beans and crept downstairs. A nice refreshing stroll in the cold corridors would clear her mind. She placed the sweets in the pocket of her dressing gown as she carefully opened the portrait out of the Gryffindor common room. She sighed and briskly walked to the owlery, she decided to send a letter to her mum just to check that everything was ok at home.

On her way she was lucky enough not to be met by any teachers, prefects or the care taker. She found Pocket, who was very interested in what was in Rose's dressing gown until she realised it wasn't food for her.

Rose strolled over to the large glassless window where the Owls entered and exited. She smiled as the cold wind hit her face, she breathed deeply in the frosty air and closed her eyes. She took out a piece of parchment and a self filling quill and wrote a quick note while leaning on the windowsill. She had trouble keeping it from blowing away but it was only a short note.

Mum and dad

It's late at night and I can't sleep. I thought I'd sent you a quick note, then go back to bed and see if the walk to the owlery had emptied my head of thoughts. Don't worry dad, me and Hugo are fine. And mum, tomorrow is Sunday so I'll have plenty of time to catch up on sleep, so I can concentrate in class on Monday and I've already completed all my homework for this week. So there's no need to send a letter back telling me that I should not stay up so late or whatever.

I wanted to check that everything is ok at home. Please send my love to grandma and grandad Granger. I love you and I'll see you at Christmas. Goodnight

Love Rosie

Rose had seen Pocket leave, probably to hunt, so she decided to wait for her. She found a small stool and sat on it so that she could stare out the window and into the stars, almost wishing she had taken astronomy.

"Rose?" A small voice startled her into falling off her stool and dropping the note for her parents.

The wind did not blow it outside, but made Rose feel a fool as she desperately tried to chase it around the room.

The note landed on the floor and someone stepped on it to stop it from blowing away as Rose made a dive for it. She ended up smacking her head into the persons leg.

She looked up. As Scorpius bent over to pick up the parchment, his head coming into the light of the moon streaking through the window.

He offered her a helping hand to get up. Rose ignored it and stood up in a huff while snatching the note off of him. She was not too pleased to see him, Scorpius was the reason she couldn't sleep.

"What are you doing startling people?! That note could've flown out the window!"

"So your blaming me for your clumsiness? Could it be that you were so startled because you know that you are not allowed out of bed at this time of night?"

"You're not allowed either."

"What are you doing?"

Rose stood there frowning at him. She did not expect Scorpius to answer back, he always stayed silent or nodded in reply. While she stood in silence, Scorpius picked up the stool and put it back in the corner where Rose had found it.

"Well- I- wha-" rose stuttered. "Why are you up here?"

"You still haven't answered my question." He replied calmly as she sat down on the stool in the dark corner.

"I was sending a note to my parents." Rose retorted and continued to frown.

"Not at this time of night."

Rose let out a growl. She was annoyed at him not just because she was tired, but that he was annoyingly calm and correct about everything. "Yes at this time of night."

"I don't believe that's why you're up here."

"Believe what you want. And what's with all the questions?!"

"You still have not answered my first question truthfully."

"Fine. I couldn't sleep. Big deal! I just thought I'd send a note then go back to bed, is that alright with you?" Pocket had still not returned and so Rose leant on the windowsill staring out into the sky again. Although she couldn't loose herself in its beauty as Scorpius was staring at her. Scowling she turned and asked him again. "Why are you here?"

"I meant to write the conclusion for my potions essay before I went to bed, but Albus was so excited about his birthday tomorrow that his constant chatter distracted me. By the time I actually finished the essay Albus was asleep, it was midnight and my head couldn't stop thinking."

Rose sighed. No longer wound up at his calmness. He was always calm. But he was just as annoyed as her because of lack of sleep. She leant against the wall next to him as they shared a comfortable silence and her Berty Botts Every Flavour Beans.

"Rose." Scorpius whispered as he was falling asleep. "You said I was a closed book."

"Yeah." Rose grunted trying to keep her eyes open.

"I'm sorry, I don't really know how to share. I never have."

"It's ok, you just need to work on it."

"It's not ok." Scorpius now stood and started to pace the room, fully waking Rose up. "It's not fair on you or Albus. It's just-"

"I know." Rose stood and placed her hand on his shoulders, stopping him from pacing. She then continued in a wavering voice from exhaustion and emotion. "I- um- I never told you that my grandmother is close to- you know- the end and that my grandfather is recently handicapped. I trust you but it is too painful to keep on talking about. I gather Albus told you, because he trusts you and knows that I trust you. You don't share because you've never had the chance whereas me and Albus have grown up with siblings and plenty of cousins, nothing stays a secret for very long in our family."

Pocket came flying in and landed on the windowsill, looking at Rose expectantly. The red head gave her owl the note and sent her off as she stared out into the stars again. They were truly beautiful to Rose and were very clear on this night. But Scorpius stared at Rose, not the stars. He was thankful to have such understanding friends and he knew that he needed to work on communication, especially with Rose. Rose was special. To Scorpius, Albus was almost the brother he never had, but Rose was special to him.

"Rose." Scorpius spoke softly as he joined her leaning on the windowsill. "I know it sounds childish, but I mean it. I'm glad we're friends."

Rose answered in a light and dreamy voice, still staring at the stars which fascinated her so much. "Me too."

"I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of you. After what you did to Finley and Daniel, I'm really glad we're friends." He smirked which granted him a mockingly disapproving look from Rose.

"Oh look at that, Scorpius Malfoy made a joke. Who would have known he had a sense of humour." Rose grinned up at her tall friend.

"If we weren't friends, I think I would be the victim of most of your jinxes."

Rose raised her eyebrows and said with a cheeky grin, "What a shock, a Weasley and a Malfoy wouldn't get along?" Her smile suddenly disappeared. "No, you're right. I'd probably pick on you, simply because you're a Malfoy. Even though my dad doesn't really like our friendship, I think both my parents, in fact my whole family, wouldn't like their daughter bullying someone because of who their parents are."

"Rose-"

She interrupted him. "No Scorpius, you're right. I would hate you! I would make your time at Hogwarts a living hell!"

Rose thought about their first kiss last year, she unconsciously touched her lips. Before she knew it Rose had tiptoed and flung her arms around Scorpius's neck, he didn't return the hug but instead stood there in shock with his arms hesitating to touch her. "I'm sorry. And I'm glad that we're friends, if not I wouldn't have known what I was missing."

Scorpius's eyes were wide open. He looked down at Rose's head, his arms still out. After a few long seconds, he gingerly placed one arm around her shoulder and the other around her waist, embracing her for what seemed like forever.

She smelled like flowers, with hint of freshly cut grass and a faint smell of ink. He closed his eyes as a warm feeing spread across his chest. Rose was beginning to feel the same, so she quickly let go. Pushing herself out of the hug and backing away, Rose didn't dare to look into Scorpius's confused eyes.

"Rose?"

"Sorry. Umm, I'm not sure what- I mean- sorry." She turned a bright shade of red that seemed to glow in the moonlight.

"Maybe we should go back."

"Yes." Rose stared at his lips and sighed. "Umm- yeah. Albus is going to be overexcited tomorrow, so- I- you need your rest. You're the first one that he's going to see, and you have the most lessons with - no it's Sunday tomorrow- so no lessons. Umm, bye." Flustered, Rose tried to run out of the room but Scorpius caught her by the waist, stopping her and making her turn and face him.

Without letting go, he spoke very softly.

"Goodnight."

She nodded in reply and went back to her room, spilling some of the sweets out of her pocket as she tripped on the first step, leaving Scorpius to scoop them up as Rose hadn't noticed. She felt more tired than she ever thought possible.

Scorpius waited a little while longer, staring into the stars which Rose had found so enchanting. Deciding that he needed to rest before a full day, he crept back to his dorm but found he couldn't sleep. Albus had heard him come in.

"Scorpius? What time is it?"

"About 1:30am."

"Ugh, where were you?" But before Scorpius could answer the barely audible grumble of a question, Albus had fallen asleep again. In the end Scorpius only managed to get 3 hours of sleep but somehow had energy all day joining in Albus's excitement.

 **CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS**

As parents bustled and chattered on the platform, the train pulled in filling the station with steam. A collective 'clunk' sounded as every door was opened and Hogwarts students skipped out and embraced their families.

Scorpius gave a small smile and raised a hand in goodbye to his friends as he found his mother standing near the far wall.

"See you later Scorpius!" Albus shouted.

"Found 'em." Lily tapped Albus on the shoulder and led her brothers, Rose and Hugo over to Harry and Ginny. "Your parents should be near them somewhere." they squeezed their way through the crowd and were greeted with hugs from the Potters.

"Mum and dad not here yet?" Hugo piped up, asking his uncle.

"Hugo, Rose." Harry sighed.

"Harry, I'll get the kids to the car." Ginny softly spoke in Harry's ear so only he, Rose and Hugo could hear. Harry kissed her on the cheek and Ginny ushered her children out of the station.

"Look, your parents had to stay at your grandparent's house. They felt that they were needed there, so me or Ginny will take you to them tomorrow morning, you'll stay at our house tonight."

"Uncle Harry, what's going on? Are our grandparents ok?" Hugo asked

"I'm not going to lie, things don't look good. I didn't get a chance to speak to your mum, but your dad said that he would explain everything when we drop you off." Harry escorted his niece and nephew out of the station and saw the Malfoy boy staring at them. He nodded at Mrs Malfoy and continued walking, until he realised that they were coming towards them.

"Potter." Astoria Malfoy smiled as she caught up with him. "Might I have a word?" The two adults went off to the side, leaving Hugo Rose and Scorpius alone.

Rose didn't look at Scorpius, instead she looked at the ground barely noticing anything around her. Forcing herself not to cry until she knew what was going on with her grandparents, she was sure that once she understood the situation there would be no need for trifling little tears which were no good to anybody.

Scorpius stared at his friend but then turned to Hugo with a questioning look. "Hugo?"

"Just- don't worry. I'll make sure she writes to you. I mean- well- she'll explain later. But right now we don't really know what's happening." Hugo's eyes threatened to cry.

Normally he would've hugged or put an arm around Rose, but he knew that if anyone touched him, even a small sympathetic tap on the shoulder, would make him spill his tears right there in kings cross station. That was why he took a step back as Scorpius moved his hand close to Hugo's arm.

"One of us will right to you- or I'll ask Albus, I don't know. Sorry." Hugo shrugged and looked at the ground.

This was the first time that Scorpius had ever seen Hugo sad, he was always such a bright and friendly boy.

Scorpius nodded, accepting the promise of a letter and turned around to see his mother returning. She smiled sympathetically at the Weasley's and wished them a merry Christmas. As they left Scorpius asked what she said to Mr Potter.

"I thanked him for taking you to the beach."

Scorpius didn't answer. He was slightly annoyed with his mother, he had personally thanked the Potters already and found her lack of faith in his manners irritating. In his silence, Astoria knew exactly what her son was thinking.

"I know you already thanked them. I was saying it on behalf of your Father and I. I also thanked him for being so accepting of you despite his history with your Father." Astoria decided to take a muggle taxi back to their home, knowing that it would annoy her parents-in-law the most.

Hugo and Rose did not talk to anyone until they arrived at the Potter's house, but that was only Rose saying that she wasn't hungry for dinner and both of them saying thanks for setting up beds for them. Rose was to sleep on a camping bed in Lily's room and Hugo in a sleeping bag on the floor of Albus' room. Their cousins had offered their own beds but the Weasley's politely refused. Rose went straight to her bed and decided to read while Hugo joined his cousins and aunt and uncle.

Late that night, Rose couldn't sleep. She crept out of the room and downstairs to the kitchen where she sat on the floor next to Pocket who was in her cage on the counter.

"You weren't in Lily's room." A whisper floated through the room. Rose looked up to see Hugo walk in and sit next to her.

"I couldn't sleep."

"Me neither."

"Oh, here." Hugo went to his trunk which was standing upright by the back door, when he returned he passed a small paper bag to Rose. "A little something for Pocket." They were owl treats.

"Thanks. You know, the other day I had Berty Botts Every Flavour Beans and Pocket thought they were treats for her. Wonder if she's over the disappointment." Pocket woke up and looked sceptical at the paper bag. "See."

"Just put it in the cage." Rose took his advice and Pocket eventually ate the treat.

"What are you hoping you'll get for Christmas?" Rose thought of any subject to talk about other than the obvious conversation about their grandparents.

"Not sure. Oh, actually, if I get some money for Christmas and for my birthday, I might be able to buy a proper broom like yours. I want to tryout for quidditch next year."

"That's a good idea."

"What about you?"

"Hmmm, more-"

"Books." Hugo interrupted, knowing his predictable sister so well. The Weasley's smiled and sat in silence.

"Why are you guys down here? The tiles are freezing." Albus joined them on the floor.

"Couldn't sleep."

"Well I guessed that, funny enough." Albus rolled his eyes at Rose's obvious response. He sat in between their out stretched legs, his feet wedged between the Weasleys. "Seriously freezing down here."

"Then you should've worn your slippers you numpty." James stated dryly as he walked into the kitchen and sat on the floor next to Albus, with his legs stretched out next to Hugo.

"Rose, why didn't you wake me up?" Lily tiptoed into the kitchen. "I was worried. Merlin it's cold."

"Thank you Lily, I think we established that." Hugo smiled at his best friend. Lily sat next to him so that James's feet were between them and her legs were side by side with her brother.

They sat in silence, keeping each other warm. Harry had heard them going downstairs and decided to check what was going on. He stopped short, out of view, in the doorway and smiled at the children who had grown to love each other so much that they were each other's best friends. Much like he was so close to Ron and Hermione. Harry crept back to his room and shook Ginny's shoulders.

"Ginny, hey Ginny wake up."

"Ugh." She sighed, sat up and scowled at Harry as he lit a candle. "What do you want Harry? It's really late."

"Where's our camera?"

"What?"

"Camera. Where is it?" Harry whispered as he shuffled through a chest of drawers on the other side of the room.

"Bottom drawer. Why do you want the camera?"

"You've got to see this. But be quiet." He took hold of Ginny's hand and led the sleepy woman down to the kitchen. The children were now smiling and whispering to each other. Harry took a photograph of them all neatly lined up between the cabinets and breakfast table. "We'll get this developed tomorrow if we can." Harry turned around to see that Ginny was now awake and smiling at the children."

"This is nice." She sighed as she hugged Harry.

"It's almost a perfect start to the holidays."

"Almost." Her shoulders dropped as she remembered why Rose and Hugo were there and what might become of the grandparents which they loved so much. Her sad look was brightened by a kiss on the forehead from her husband. Ginny took his hand and the couple emerged into the moonlight which lit the entire kitchen with a pale glow.

"You know, you'd be more comfortable in the living room." Ginny grinned at their startled faces. "Hot chocolate anyone?"

Ginny and Harry proceeded to make hot chocolate for everyone and then joined them sitting on the floor. They stayed up all night talking about their term at Hogwarts. At around 7am, they decided to have breakfast and get dressed. Ginny was to take Hugo and Rose to the Granger's house while Harry stayed home with their children to put up the Christmas lights outside.

 **CHRISTMAS DAY POTTER HOUSEHOLD**

The family was over, each helping in the making and the clear up of Christmas dinner. However there were some missing. Ron, Hermione, Rose and Hugo had spent Christmas at the Granger's house. Everyone was sad that they could not join in, for the Grangers were always welcome and always came to the two day celebrations, but they could not leave the house under doctors orders.

Albus snuck out after clean up, as the family were now lulling about chatting, waiting for the inevitable family game, usually of charades. Albus took out his broom from the shed and flew a few laps around the garden before stopping by the single tree in the middle of the garden. There he hovered just off the ground and stared at the house where he could still see the lights on in every room and could hear faint sounds of laughter. He missed Rose. Christmas wasn't the same without his best friend as she would normally sneak off with him.

Albus and Scorpius had written to each other everyday, Hugo couldn't face writing about why he and Rose were upset at the station so he asked Albus to do it for them. That was not a fun letter to write. Albus had written to Scorpius and sent off his Christmas present to him before dinner and was waiting for a reply which he knew would come within an hour or so.

"Why are you out here?"

The voice had startled Albus, who lost his balance and fell off his broomstick. He looked up to see a giggling James and Lily.

"We saw you leave." Lily explained the obvious

"We always see you and Rose leave, we normally let you alone." James added which ended in him receiving a sceptical look from Albus before they both turned to look at Lily. As she usually followed Rose and Albus outside and interrupt their conversation.

"What? She's my cousin too. I am allowed to talk to her. Plus Hugo always gets into a discussion with grandpa Weasley about muggles. I mean sure, they're interesting, it's just that Hugo and grandpa know so much, that I feel left out." Lily whined and James put his arm around her shoulder, bringing her in for a hug.

"I'm not saying that you're not allowed to talk to her, I'm just saying - ugh never mind." Albus rolled his eyes and sat on the ground, leaning against the tree, his siblings followed.

"Have either of you written to Rose or Hugo?"

"Yeah, every other day. Didn't want to overload them. But I haven't got an answer yet." Lily answered. "What about you Albus?"

"I wrote to both of them the day after they left our house. I got a note from Hugo, saying that they arrived safely and could I please tell Scorpius what was going on as he felt like he couldn't. And a even smaller note from Rose saying Merry Christmas but she's busy so she'll write to us when she has time." Albus sighed

"Meaning that they want to be left alone." James summed up for Lily, who seemed to be upset that her cousins had written to Albus and not to her. "They just need some time with their grandparents before, you know. Don't worry Lily, I'm sure they'll be back to normal when we get back to school."

They all looked up as they saw Roxanne, George's daughter, walking towards them. She was in Gryffindor and in the same year as James.

"Hey guys." She smiled and leant an elbow against the tree, looking down at them with her head slightly tilted. "Grandma's looking for you." While rolling her eyes in mock annoyance, she added. "A game of charades this year. Again. Like we do every year."

James jumped up and grinned at his cousin. "Yeah, but you love it. 'Cause you always win. A pointless talent unless you want to go into the arts industry, but-"

"I do want to go into the arts industry." This was said in complete truth that it wiped off James' grin. He wasn't annoyed or disappointed, he just felt foolish for joking about it. James's intention was never to mock what Roxanne wanted or what she was good at. "Yeah, trying to convince mum to let me go to W.A.D.A."

She was met by blank faces.

"Wizarding Academy for Dramatic Arts. It's for wizards who want theatrical or performance careers."

"Cool." Lily smiled, grabbed Albus's hand and skipped off into the house, dragging her brother behind her. Meanwhile Roxanne and James raced each other to the shed to put away the broomstick.

 **BOXING DAY**

"Hey, mum?" Albus called to Ginny.

"I'm in the living room if you need me. I'm too comfy to move." Ginny shouted back earning her a chuckle from Harry. They were both lying on the sofa, exhausted after Christmas Day with such a big family. But they loved doing it and they knew that everyone had fun. Albus could be heard running down the stairs, the loud thumping woke James up from his nap on the floor. (He was originally on the sofa but somehow managed to slowly slide down and on to the floor, while remaining cocooned in the blanket.)

"Could I invite Scorpius over for the day?"

"What day?"

"I thought I'd be the son of the year and ask you what day would be best for you rather than telling you." Albus gave a cheeky but charming smile.

Ginny sighed. "Meaning that you only just thought about inviting Scorpius over and decided that I should arrange everything so you don't have to."

"Well, if you're offering,"

"No, I'm not organising anything else for the entire year. Invite him over, I don't mind when, we've nothing else planned."

Albus ran upstairs and wrote to Scorpius, inviting him over for the following day.

 **MALFOY MANOR**

Scorpius was excited about going to Albus's house, he couldn't wait, which was a fact reflected throughout the rest of Boxing Day. He wouldn't stop fidgeting and staring into space, a rare occurrence for Scorpius. His parents found his behaviour annoying at first, but seeing how it irritated Scorpius's grandparents even more, they then found it slightly amusing.

Half way through the day, however, Scorpius found that his mood could be brought down. Lloyd Parkinson and his mother, Pansy, turned up. At first Scorpius hid in his room on the third floor, and was writing back and forth to Albus about who had come and why he was hiding and how bored he was. Lloyd soon figured out where Scorpius was, so he managed to sneak into the library which was on the same floor.

"Are you seriously hiding from me?" Lloyd burst into the library and marched over to where Scorpius was finishing an essay on the difference between a poltergeist and a ghost. "Why are you being such a child? Still playing hide and seek, bet your little imaginary friends around here somewhere. You heard me coming and stashed your dolls under a table."

"What do you want?"

"Well, we're friends aren't we?"

"No."

"Since when? We've always gotten along so well. Our parents seem to think we do. "

"There's a difference between being civil and being friends."

"Tut tut Scorpius, I don't think your family would appreciate the way you treat me, you know my mother and your father are pretty close." Lloyd attempted to provoke him further, but Scorpius had already gone back to writing his essay. "I talked to that Finley Norwood the other day, the guy that your weasel friend attacked, and he doesn't seem that bad a bloke. For a Hufflepuff. Oh, and his friend Leyton might have a thing for her, not exactly sure, just that he stares at her a lot more than you do. But his friend Felix Stirling has had his eye on her since first year, even though they have never spoken to each other ever. I don't know what they, and by that I mean including you, see in her. Yeah she's smart, but that's it. Maybe the heap of ginger knots that she calls hair is a flame in a quite literal sense and draws weirdos and nerds to her."

Despite Scorpius's better efforts, this did make him loose concentration for a moment as he looked up at the bane of his existence to see if he was joking, his conclusion being that, although it was said to annoy Scorpius, he was not lying about his and Finley's suspicions, and that he noticed Scorpius staring at Rose.

"Finley picks on people when he's bored. And Rose never attacked anyone."

"Then care of magical creatures is as boring and as much of a waste of space as I thought, and my parents and your grandparents think." Lloyd paced in front of him. "I believe another tut tut is needed here, Scorpius, your disaster of an education has managed to be ridiculed by so many. How is such a mindless subject meant to benefit your future? It's worse enough that you made alliances with weasels and Potters, they will get you nowhere." He dragged a plush but elegant armchair towards Scorpius so that he could face him dead on, he crossed his legs and linked his hands on his lap. "Now, someone like Norwood, even though he's a useless Hufflepuff," Scorpius rolled his eyes. "who has a mother working in the ministry of magic, can create links and open doors. And if you're going to have a crush on a girl, try Stirling's sister, she's smart and has very powerful relatives. Her own uncle is the minister of magic's right hand man."

Scorpius could see his owl, Vincent swooping around outside the third floor and heading towards his room. As Lloyd continued to waffle on about family connections, Scorpius casually strolled out without saying a word, and kicked his only half emptied trunk in front of the door, leaving Lloyd to scowl at an empty chair. Scorpius had a letter from Albus asking him about the finer details for the following day, what time Scorpius would be available and so on.

 **END OF JANUARY, THREE WEEKS BACK TO SCHOOL**

It was odd to be back at school without Rose or Hugo having a constant presence. No one had seen them for longer than a day or two before they disappeared from school, only to return for the maximum of three days, then left again. They offered no explanation for their random comings and goings, when asked they only grunted or shrugged and changed the subject. Hugo, who was normally bubbly and loud, took to doodling in a notepad with a muggle biro pen, instead of talking to Lily. Rose, who had always been a book worm and independent, shrunk more into her books, but stared at the front covers without reading them, and refused to sit anywhere but at the back of the class on her own. If someone tried to join her, she would sigh, nod to the teacher (who all seemed to understand what was happening and so left her alone) and leave the class. This new behaviour was taking a toll on their best friends, mainly the Potters who seemed to have mellowed with them without realising. Albus and Lily almost spoke as little as Scorpius.

One day, after a quiet day in Hogsmeade, Albus and Scorpius trudged back to the castle to see Rose and Hugo returning from wherever they had been for the past two days. Rose saw her friends but ran into the Gryffindor common room, while Hugo hung back.

"Albus," said Hugo staring at his shoes as his cousin approached. "How was Hogsmeade?"

"Cold. Quiet without your sister."

"Did you have fun Scorpius?" Hugo briefly looked up at him before staring off in the distance, not really listening, so Scorpius just shrugged in reply. "Well, I should get to bed- you know- no sleep in a few-" Hugo sighed between his half muttered and unfinished sentences "good night, afternoon- bye"

Scorpius and Albus watched Hugo go through the entrance to his common room through the fat lady. Once the painting swung shut, they simultaneously looked up at the large clock hanging on the corridor, it was 3pm.

"What am I going to do Scorpius?" Albus groaned as they flopped into green arm chairs by the fire in the Slytherin common room. "Wait for them to tell me, what in Merlin's name, is going on? Do I write to my aunt and uncle? Do I write to my parents?"

Scorpius new that Albus was not finished yet so he stared into the fire, not interrupting.

"I mean, they're clearly not happy! If I just knew what was going on, I could-" Albus shrugged, Scorpius shrugged back. "I'm not sure if I could help, actually. I think it's something to do with their muggle grandparents." Scorpius nodded in agreement, he had suspected that since the beginning. "But I'm worried about them. Their not only two of my best friends, they're my cousins. Maybe my mum will know something about it. I mean, Rose is quieter than you!"

"And Hugo is forcing a brave face."

"Yeah. Not a convincing one though. James is worried too. Actually all of us are." Albus suddenly, sat bolt upright. "Hey!" He excitedly gasped, bringing Scorpius's attention to Albus, who was leaning on the chairs armrest, making it lean towards him. "You know on Weasley and Potter birthdays, we all meet up in the Gryffindor common room before anyone else is awake?" Scorpius nodded, remembering feeling awkward and kind of excluded by his friends' family during those two occasions. "Well, we could all meet up and get Rose and Hugo to talk to us, as a family."

"No"

Albus's smile disappeared and was replaced by a lost and disappointed look. "Why not?" He asked, even though he was pretty sure he knew why.

"The last thing they want is it to seem like their family is ganging up on them."

"Yeah, I guess." Moaned Albus as he slumped back into his arm chair, kicking a loose piece of coal closer to the fire. "I don't want to gang up on them, I just want to help."

"You feel like there's nothing in the world that you wouldn't do to make them happy again." Scorpius stared into the fire and thought of Rose. He felt so powerless, he felt there was no way to make her happy other than to leave her alone and hope that everything sorted itself out.

At breakfast the next morning, Rose sat at the very edge of the table right next to Hugo, they looked so exhausted and weren't even talking to each other so everyone left them alone. Their cousins sat bunched together in the middle of the along table, where they normally sat, and Scorpius and Albus sat at the Slytherin table also in silence. When the post came, Rose quickly picked up a letter which Pocket had dropped along with the Daily Profit, and she and Hugo left in a hurry, leaving behind both the newspaper and half of their breakfast. Rose even spilt her untouched tea all over the table and didn't stop to notice. Luckily professor Nye was there to clean it up with a simple flick of his wand before being almost trampled by the Weasley children exiting.

"Hugo, in here." Rose muttered to her brother as she dragged him into an empty corridor, they sat on a windowsill over looking the lake and opened the letter. It was a bit damp in one corner from the tea Rose had spilt.

Rose and Scorpius

I'm afraid grandma has taken a turn for the worst, she wants to see you two again and hopes that you can stay for a week. If you'd can't she will understand as your education is important. But, as we know you will most likely come, your mother and I have informed the school that you will be leaving one hour after breakfast on the day you receive this. If you want to stay, then tell Neville and reply to this letter, otherwise we'll communicate once we've travelled back to grandma's house.

I'm not going to lie, your mother is barely sleeping at all and your grandfather rarely leaves grandma's bedside. I know it would do us all some good if they see you two.

Love you,

Dad

Once they had both finished reading the letter they ran to their dormitories to pack and met each other in the empty common room. Everyone else was in their lessons. Neville walked in, seeing Rose and Hugo in a comforting hug, clinging to each other for emotional support, glad to know that someone else was feeling the exact same worry and helplessness. Neville cleared his throat and led the children to the front entrance where Ron was waiting with his arms wide open.

"What did your cousins say when you told them your were leaving for a week?" Ron questioned as they walked down to Hogsmeade so that hey could use the floo network from George's office.

"Oh, we didn't tell them." Hugo answered absently.

"We rushed as soon as we got the letter. We haven't spoken to them or Scorpius much in a while."

Ron sighed and decided to pick up the pace, the sooner they left, the sooner everyone saw each other and felt a little better. Or at least that's what he hoped, even though he knew that that wasn't going to be the case.

Rose and Hugo had been gone for two weeks when James received a letter from his mother.

Albus sat in his potions lesson, bored and doodling in his textbook while Scorpius took detailed notes with utter fascination. Professor Longbottom knocked on the door, James trailing behind him, and requested Albus be excused from the class follow them to his office. Two minutes later James came rushing back into the class.

"Sorry Professor, this concerns Scorpius too." he nodded at Scorpius whose confusion was shown on his face. The two boys took quick strides up the corridor to Longbottom's office. "It's about Rose's grandma," James explained without looking at Scorpius, "I think she'd want you to be included in this family gathering."

Scorpius saw exactly what he meant once they reached the office. Ginny Potter, all of the Weasley cousins and Potter children were sat looking expectantly at Ron Weasley. Longbottom left the room after giving a quick hug to Ginny and a pat on the back to Ron.

"Umm, thanks for coming, I know you were in the middle of class, but Hermione's mother has died." small gasps and tears pooled around the room. "You all knew her, we all loved her and I believe it would help Hermione and her dad if you all came to The Burrow just for the weekend. Your parents have all confirmed and you teachers have been told. You don't have to come, but if you do, go and pack now, otherwise go back to your lesson."

Everyone stood and scurried to the Gryffindor dormitories and Albus sprinted to his Slytherin dormitory while Ginny and Ron had a hushed and sympathetic conversation by the window. Scorpius stood by the open door unsure of what to do.

"Malfoy." Ron's disapproving voice, so different from how he had spoken to his family only moments ago, startled Scorpius into standing bolt upright. "I guess your not coming then?"

"It's, it's just- I wasn't sure- my parents, they-"

"Harry wrote to your mother, she gave you permission to come if you want." Ginny interrupted seeing the boy's nervous state in front of her brother.

"Yes, it seems that the majority of the family think that Rose would like you to be there." Ron shrugged, obviously disagreeing with the decision but going along with it anyway.

Scorpius nodded. "Thank you Mr Weasley, I will come, for my friend." he shook both of the adult's hands, much to their surprise, and ran as fast as he could to pack.

"I guess he does care about Rose. He's a closer friend to her than we thought." Ginny sighed "I mean, I knew he was close to Albus, I was just never sure whether Rose was just a mutual friend or not."

"It's not just Rose, I think he's even getting along quite well with my Hugo too."

"Perhaps the Malfoy boy isn't as bad as you thought." Ginny ruffled Ron's hair.

Ron grunted. "He's still a Malfoy and she's still my daughter, I don't like it but as long as they're friends and he behaves, I'll stay out of it."

"He's a nice boy, very polite."

"Still a Malfoy."

Ginny rolled her eyes.

 **THE BURROW, FRIDAY NIGHT**

Everyone had used the floo network from George's joke shop in Hogsmeade and had travelled in small groups. The last to leave were Albus and Scorpius.

"So, you're coming?" asked Albus

Scorpius nodded. "Well, your uncle said that Rose would want me there. unless you think he's wrong and I should stay behind. I mean I know that your whole family can't be expected to like me let alone accept me into their home."

Albus sighed and patted Scorpius on the shoulder. "It won't be easy mate. But just stick with me and Rose and you'll be fine. Actually Hugo and Lilly will be happy to see you there too, they've grown fond of you. I don't know how, I mean you're pretty quiet and a closed book." Albus smirked

"Your family trust your judgement. I can't say the same about my family."

"Hey, they're letting you come. At least your mum knows how important Rose is to you." Scorpius turned slightly red, it would have gone unnoticed if Albus hadn't known him so well.

Ginny suddenly appeared in the fireplace. "Ok boys, everyone is out of the fireplace on the other end. Stand next to me and we'll go." the boys complied as Ginny grabbed a handful of floo powder. "The Burrow."

They disappeared into the green smoke.

"Al." Rose acknowledged when she saw her cousin, she ran and hugged him. Over his shoulder, Rose could see Scorpius looking awkwardly at the floor while Ron glared at him from the opposite side of the room. "Scorpius?" she let go of Albus to run to him. She resisted the urge to hug him, which she found difficult as Rose had been finding any excuse for physical contact for the past week. "I knew you would come."

Scorpius nodded, he was confused at her happiness. Her grandmother had just died and Rose was behaving as if it was the beginning of a school holiday.

"Oh, Hugo wanted to see you two when you arrived." Rose broke the silence between the three best friends. "Follow me."

As they followed, Albus leaned in and whispered to Scorpius. "I thought she'd be more, you know, I thought she'd be crying. I wonder what is going on with-"

Albus was interrupted by the sight of Hugo and Hermione and Mr Granger. They were all sitting around the kitchen table with dark circles under their eyes from lack of sleep ad tears threatening to spill over. The mood, even though it was quite dismal throughout the rest of the house, was considerably more depressing around these three. And Scorpius immediately understood why Rose was so normal, although slightly quieter than usual. Taking a closer look at her, he saw that she also had signs of lack of sleep.

"Um, hi." Albus softly greeted Hugo. he moved around to hug his aunt. "I'm sorry for your loss." He moved over to Mr Granger. "Umm, sir, I can't- I'm sorry for- well, she was-"

Mr Granger's eyes pooled with water as he gave a soft smile to Albus, his voice shook as he spoke "I know, thank you."

Scorpius stayed by the open door, unsure what to do as he did not know Rose's family other than the brief meeting with her dad. Who didn't like him, so not much progress could been seen there.

"Scorpius." a little voice whispered behind him. It was Lilly. She took hold of his forearm and led him outside to a large tree. "This is where Albus and Rose hang out when we visit, they'll come and find us in a minute or two."

"How is Hugo dealing with all of this?"

"Not well. He's not his usual cheery self and we're all worried about him, actually we're worried about all of them. Aunt Hermione has barely slept in weeks, Mr Granger seems lost all the time and Rose is, I wouldn't say happy but oddly normal."

Scorpius nodded and they sat in silence. It was cold and he wished he had taken his jumper out of his trunk before letting Lilly drag him outside. He looked down at the young girl and saw that she also seemed a little lost, he guessed that without her best friend, she didn't have many people to talk to. Plus Albus would be busy sticking to Rose, and James had been running errands for their aunt and uncle. Thats why she brought Scorpius along with her to the tree, because they kind of knew each other.

"And how are you holding up?" Scorpius asked without sounding patronising. Lily looked up at him, her eyes slightly watering at his kindness .

"You know, it sounds kind of selfish, but it's kind of been bugging me that no one has asked me that." She wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her knitted pink jumper. She sniffed. "I guess you would understand. Rose is your best friend like Hugo is mine and it feels like they've been gone for so long. Ignoring us, not speaking much and now behaving so different from usual. It sucks and I know they're going through a tough time, but we all knew Mrs Granger, she was practically a grandma to everyone. I just want them to know that I'm here if they need me."

Scorpius thought for a moment, then replied "Have you told them that?"

"Well, yeah. We're best friends, its what we say to each other all the time."

"Exactly. Everyone says that they'll be there for you no matter what, and when life is going well, we are inclined to believe it as our friends stick with us. It's when we are going through a tough time, that we actually find out who really loves us enough to stay our friend."

Lilly looked up at Scorpius, she was impressed, "Sometimes I forget how smart you are. Thanks."

"I can't take credit for it, there's a saying, 'a friend in need is a friend indeed'."

"Never heard it before."

"Must be a muggle thing. We probably did it in muggle studies while I wasn't paying 100% attention."

"Well that doesn't sound like you."

Scorpius sighed, "You would be surprised, I surprised myself. To be honest, lately I've been distracted by a certain pers-"

"Hey." Albus subduedly called to them as he and Rose approached the tree. "Lily, I think Hugo could do with someone too remain constantly at his side. I would do it myself but," he looked at Rose and continued quietly, "I've kind of got my hands full with a certain person." Albus tilted his head to indicate that he was talking about Rose. "I feel as though she will have a breakdown at any moment."

Rose gently lowered herself down between Lilly and Scorpius. Lilly stood and Albus took her place, wrapping an arm around Rose's shoulder.

"Right, I'm going in to see Hugo." Lily announced as she marched inside, thinking of the advice Scorpius had given her.

It was beginning to get dark outside as the trio watched the sunset, they sat in a comfortable silence for a while.

Rose finally spoke once the sun had completely set. "Scorpius, would it be alright if you slept on the sofa? Or would you rather James slept on the sofa and you slept in the same room as Albus?"

"No, the sofa is great."

Albus and Rose both raised their eyebrows and gave him a look of amused disbelief.

"Well, not great but-"

"Scorpius, its an old sofa, stop being so polite. Of course it won't be great. I was joking, Albus'll sleep on the sofa."

"No, this is your family's house, you sleep in a bed. I mean it, I'm just glad I can be here for you, Rose." Scorpius took Rose's hand a gave it a compassionate squeeze. The sincere look in his eyes made them accept his kindness.

In the end, the trio had spent too long under the tree and had missed dinner, not that they minded as they were all too distracted to be hungry. Once they finally came into the house, they found that everyone but Ginny had gone to bed.

"Nice of you to come back." Ginny smiled as they entered the kitchen.

Later that night, as Scorpius lay awake on the sofa, he heard someone tiptoeing down the creaky stairs. He peered through the door which had been left open a jar. As he squinted he saw a red blur dash past. He could feel a draft from the back door opening. He grabbed his blanket, wrapped it around himself, shoved on his trainers and quietly shuffled to the door where he pushed open to see what had run past. There he saw the back door wide open and Rose sitting on the step, looking up at the stars, crying.

Scorpius instantly retreated back into the living room. He felt he was intruding and he knew that Rose needed to time alone to cry. Her cheerfulness was an unnatural reaction to the death of her grandmother, Scorpius knew she was putting on a brave face for her mother, brother and grandfather who seemed to be taking it the hardest. But Rose was handling it in the worst possible way. She needed to be alone to be herself.

 **SATURDAY**

Scorpius had barely slept for an hour as he had been up all night waiting for Rose to go back to bed and then, when she finally did, he laid awake worrying about her. Knowing that she wouldn't have had much more sleep than himself. So when he was pushed off the sofa before the sun had even risen, it came as quite a shock.

"Hey, wake up." James spoke in a whisper.

"Hurry up." another small whisper which sounded like Lily.

"And do it quietly, your thud from falling of the sofa could've woken up the entire family." yet another hushed voice came, this time from Albus.

Scorpius groaned and looked up at the Potters, he was still laying on the floor covered in blankets. "I didn't fall, someone pushed me. What time is it? Why are you up so early? What are you doing?"

he added the last question as he felt someone jabbing something into his side. He then realised that they were all dressed and holding broomsticks.

"Oh yeah, forgot to mention that our oh-so-quiet-and-polite Scorpius here isn't a morning person unless the sun has been up for a good few hour."

"Come on, get dressed. Albus will show you where to get a broom, we'll meet you guys by the tree." James gave Scorpius a hard pat on the shoulder just as he was sitting up, which sent him flying back to the ground when he groaned again.

"Come on mate." Albus chuckled and helped his friend up.

James, Lily, Albus and Scorpius spent the hours before breakfast flying around the house and garden on broomsticks. Albus was a bit shaky and Lily only needed the occasional expert tip from James. Scorpius and James were by far the better flyers, Scorpius was perhaps equally as good, a point which Albus brought up at breakfast.

"Why are you not on the quidditch team? Slytherin needs a player like you. Especially playing against Gryffindor, I mean, your just as good as James. And he's their best player." Albus was pacing back and forth behind his quiet family who were trying to eat their toast.

Scorpius just shrugged and the entire family stared at him. He looked awkwardly around the many faces looking at him, expecting him to answer. Hugo, Hermione and Mr Granger were not present at breakfast, they had decided to go for a walk. Harry, Ron and the rest of the parents had also left for work. The only ones left were Molly and Arthur Weasley, all of their grandchildren, Ginny (who had taken the day off work to help her parents look after their many grandchildren and offer emotional support to Hermione) and Scorpius.

"Oh, you were very good. We all saw you this morning." Molly Weasley encouraged

"They wanted you, Albus." Scorpius quietly answered and went back to his breakfast. The attention of the family then turned to Albus who had gone red and finally sat down at his place.

After a few moments of silence Arthur Weasley, his grandfather, finally spoke. "Well, you neglected to tell us that tiny little detail! Albus you could be on the quidditch team."

"Well I don't want to be!" He stood. "It's exhausting living under the shadow of dad, one of the youngest seekers at Hogwarts, and mum, the famous professional Quidditch player for the Holyhead Harpies and James! You're all, like, the best quidditch players Hogwarts have ever seen! I'm not as good a flyer and I prefer watching the game than playing. If I join, I'll be the one Potter who sucked at quidditch!"

"Albus, if you don't want to join, you don't have to." Roxanne Weasley shrugged.

"Sweety, you don't suck. In fact, you're a brilliant flyer and the Slytherin team would be lucky to have you. No one is pressuring you to join, and we certainly don't think any less of you." Ginny hugged her son and ruffled his hair.

"Yeah, and maybe it's better if you don't join, this way I have proof that quidditch isn't the only thing Potters are good at." James chuckled as he leaned back on his chair.

"James! The chair has four legs, you have two. I want to see all six on the ground!" Ginny turned on her authoritative voice and barked at her eldest son. It startled James so much that he fell backwards and landed hard on the ground. "This is why we don't swing on our chairs!"

"It's just a chair Ginny." Molly, Ginny's mother, smiled.

"Mum! It's not the chair, its his safety! How many times was I told off for swinging on the chair, now it's time for me to tell my children off! James, get up this instant!" Ginny shouted louder.

And just like that, the subject was changed and Albus truly believed that his family didn't care that he wasn't part of the quidditch team and that there was no need to live in their shadows.

While the arguing was still going on, Rose, Scorpius and Albus slipped out of the kitchen to the garden.

"If we sit over there, we'll be able to see my family come back from their walk." Rose ran ahead from the boys as they walked to the tree.

Albus hung back a bit to quietly speak to Scorpius, "You can really see the bags under her eyes. I don't think she's been sleeping at all."

Scorpius nodded in agreement but stayed silent, deciding not to tell Albus about Rose crying until he had got up the nerve to talk to her about it.

Rose began to climb the tree and the boys followed. "I think Albus is right, you're a great flyer and the Slytherin team desperately need some help."

"Hey! They're not that bad! I mean, we beat Hufflepuff the other day!" Albus shouted behind her.

"Yeah, well," Rose had finally made it up to a high enough branch to see over the hill where her family would be walking. "Thats only because half of them were in the hospital wing because of some fake Weasley products that Rory Green, your team captain, gave them. They had to find a substitute team within a week."

"Good point. Rory Green sucks." Albus accepted defeat. "He made Anjelica Gully chaser only because they were going out at the time! She wasn't even that good."

"She broke up with him you know." Rose and Albus were now talking between themselves as Scorpius took in the beautiful view of rolling hillsides and tiny clusters of buildings were the near villages were.

"What actually happened there?"

"I think she realised how immature and petty he was, plus she's in her last year. She's about to leave and get a job while he's in the year below and still pranking first years."

"Meh, good enough reason to dump him."

"So why don't you join the team Scorpius?" Rose questioned him

"No real reason other than, I'd rather not."

"Really?" Albus found this both outrageous and hilarious. "What, and you just like sitting there and watching it with me?"

"Actually, yes." Scorpius was so sincere in his answer that it stopped Albus from laughing. "It's one of those rare times that I can forget my homework and any other problems, and just have fun with my friend."

"Naww mate, I enjoy hanging out with you at quidditch matches too." Albus playfully punched his friend in the arm.

"Hey! There they are!" Rose dropped straight down from the tree as she spotted her family pushing Mr Granger in his wheelchair up the winding path to the house and ran to them.

Scorpius and Albus looked at each other then looked at the long drop from the high branch, each wondering how on earth Rose got down without a single scratch or even the energy to run. Not that they were scared of heights, but they decided it would be best to climb down carefully.

The only thing that seemed to put a tiny damper on Rose's mood was the announcement that her father gave after dinner. The entire family were now back in the Burrow, the adults included. Hugo and Mr Granger sat very sullen and still in the corner. Rose stood leaning against the wall next to Albus. Scorpius stood in the doorway with one hand on Rose's shoulder for comfort, she rested her head on his hand. This caught a few glances from the more protective cousins and aunts and uncles, but Scorpius didn't care as long as he knew that he was doing all he could to help Rose.

"We are going to hold the funeral on Sunday morning. We will all go by floo network to the Grangers house, and we'll walk down to the local church where Mrs Granger is being buried." Ron announced as he stood in front of the fire as the family and Scorpius crowded around the living room, either standing or sitting. Hermione started to sob quietly next to him so she sat on the arm rest of a sofa and Ron squeezed her hand tightly and kept holding on for the remainder of his talk. "Then we'll come back here for refreshments and then Ginny'll send the kids back to school in the afternoon. Meanwhile, we would appreciate it if some of you adults stay behind to help us pack up Mr Granger's stuff so that he can permanently move in here."

There were nods of agreements and hands were shown of volunteers, but mostly the room was silent and solum. As each person filed one by one out of the room, deciding to take an early night, they each stopped to hug Hugo, Hermione, Rose and Mr Granger and offer their sympathies once again. Mrs Granger was like a grandmother to all of them. Everyone shared in the grief.

Ron wheeled Mr Granger to the downstairs bedroom, then came back to take Hermione hand in hand up to their bedroom. She was too exhausted to notice what was going on. Hugo nodded to Scorpius, Rose and Albus, then went to bed himself.

"Well, good night." Albus hugged Rose for a third time in the past ten minutes and patted Scorpius on the back as he left.

Scorpius stretched and grabbed his blanket and pillow from the corner on the other side of the room, he assumed Rose had left but she remained leaning against the wall, staring at the floor.

Scorpius was just about to change into his pjs when he realised that she was still there.

"Hey, Rose, are you ok?" Scorpius gently lifted her chin so that she would look at him. For a moment he thought that he saw tears in her eyes, but she blinked and it disappeared.

"Yeah," Rose cleared her throat and shrugged. "I'll see you in the morning." She began to exit when she suddenly spun around. "And thanks again for coming Scorpius, I'm glad my family finally got to meet you, even if it's in such a time of hurt. They can see how much you mean to me and how much you truly care about your friends, they can't judge you by any hostile relationship they may have with your grandparents anymore. You've really helped me Scorpius, its nice to know that you're one of those friends who will be with you through thick and thin." she smiled a watery smile and hurried up the stairs.

Scorpius stood staring at the exact spot where she had just left for over an hour. Once he finally got into bed, he lay awake and stared at the clock. It was around 2am when he heard the creaking on the stairs again, then a sudden red blur dashed past. He followed it to the kitchen to once again see Rose sitting on the step of an open door, crying her heart out. He took a full step into the kitchen and she didn't seem to notice, so he poured her a glass of water and found a box of tissues. He placed them on the ground and quietly slid the box and the glass next to Rose then dashed out of the room.

Rose heard the glass sliding on the floor and suddenly spun around. There seemed to be no one there, and the door leading to the hallway was open slightly, just as she had left it. As she turned back around to stare at the stars, she almost knocked over the glass of water. Someone had been there. But she was grateful for the thought and that they had left her alone. She drank the water and used up most of the tissues then put it all away. She had been sitting there for over an hour and decided to go back to bed.

As she began to softly climb the stairs again, she saw that the lounge door was open a jar. From it, she knew, you could see straight to where she had been sitting. Rose slowly opened the door and saw that Scorpius had been sitting awake watching through the gap.

"Rose. I'm so sorry, I never meant to spy-" Scorpius made hushed excuses but was cut off by Rose's tears.

She had no idea why she was crying again, and it annoyed her that she was. She thought that maybe it was just nice to find out that Scorpius had known that she was in so much pain to not be able to express her grief in front of anyone for fear that it would make Hugo and Hermione worse. It made her cry with relief that he understood enough to let her be alone but still try to take care of her at the same time.

Rose stumbled forward and Scorpius caught her. He laid her on the sofa and covered her with his blanket, while he sat on the floor. He was about to go and sleep on another sofa when Rose grabbed his hand, so he sat on the floor again. His head leaning on the sofa near hers.

No words were exchanged. And for the first time in weeks, Rose slept for more than 2 hours.

 **SUNDAY**

Scorpius woke up to Ron staring hard at him. It was enough to make him jump. Scorpius realised that he was still sitting right on the cold hard floor and holding Rose's hand. Ron glared and left the room, silently beckoning Scorpius. The boy didn't dare to disobey Mr Weasley, so he let go of Rose's hand and gently laid her hand next to her head. He softly brushed a piece of her hair out of her face and took a moment to stare at the resting girl, then followed Ron outside.

"Grab a pair of wellies, there are loads you can borrow by the back door." Ron called from outside. Scorpius did as he was told.

The sun was coming up, it was still cold but not as bad as Scorpius expected.

"Sir, did you want to talk to me about something?" Scorpius asked.

"No. I don't like that a Malfoy hangs around my nephew, I like it less that the same Malfoy hangs around my daughter. But it seems that she likes you and values your friendship. And the only reason that I won't throw you out of this house right now, is that you are a good friend to her." Ron didn't look at Scorpius as he spoke. As he turned to march back inside the house, he stopped to clap Scorpius on the shoulder. "She hasn't slept in days." Ron meant it as a thank you to Scorpius for helping rose but he did not want to say the actual words. He thought again of the image that he originally disliked of Rose lying peacefully asleep, hand in hand with a Malfoy who rested his head so close to hers while surrounded by tissues. "She hasn't been able to openly grieve, for too long now. You helped her." With a nod, Ron stormed back to the house and left Scorpius looking bewildered.

Once Ron got back to his room, he sat on the bed and held Hermione.

"Rose slept for a few hours, and she's been crying. I think Scorpius has helped her to understand that she can grieve."

Hermione looked at him and gave a small smile, the first he had seen in weeks. "You called him Scorpius."

Ron shrugged. "Yeah, but just this once. Well, I guess this weekend he hasn't been as bad as I thought." his factly suddenly turned hard and his knuckles went white as he made a fist. "But the moment he hurts my Rosie-"

"I know. And I'll be there with you making sure he never hurts her again, but while she still counts him as close enough to help her be herself, we have to accept him."

They sat in silence and listened to the birds singing outside.

"Are you ready for today?"

Hermione sighed "As ready as I'll ever be. At least my dad will be well looked after. This is so hard, I'll miss her so much."

"We all will."

Meanwhile Scorpius had returned to the living room to sit on the floor and watch Rose sleep, daring not to wake her up. He heard her family waking up and coming down to breakfast, hoping that they would be quiet. In fact they were, barely anyone spoke as they were all in too much grief to talk about much else but the funeral.

Albus walked in, saw Scorpius comforting a sleeping Rose and backed out again, knowing that his cousin was in safe hands.

When Rose woke up it was 8am. She had slept for 5 solid hours. The living room was empty and there was a piece of toast and a mug of tea still warm on a stool in front of her. She sat up slowly and a few used tissues fell off her. She remembered Scorpius and his support last night and smiled a little.

She looked at the clock, the funeral started in half an hour and she knew that her family would probably already be there and waiting for her to arrive. There was some floo powder left for her. She ran upstairs to change into her black robes after scoffing down the toast and spilling most of her tea on her pjs. Once she returned to the living room she realised Scorpius was sitting by the fireplace waiting.

"I was in the kitchen, waiting for- but then I heard you go up so I came in here to wait- are you ok?" Scorpius stopped his stuttering explanation when he saw that there were pools in Rose's eyes threatening to spill. Today she refused to hide her emotions, today she was going to mourn for her grandmother.

"I don't know." her voice wobbled. "This is going to be really hard."

"Yes it is."

"Ok." she took a deep breath, then stood in the fire place.

They each took a handful of floo powder and stood in the fireplace. Rose took hold of Scorpius's hand. And they disappeared into the green smoke.

The funeral was short and most people cried. Some muggle friends and family were also there, but they were too sad to notice that the majority were dressed in wizard robes rather than muggle clothing. Ginny ended up staying with the rest of the adults to help move Mr Granger's belongings while Molly and Arthur Weasley took their grandchildren and Scorpius back to their home to get changed then return to Hogsmeade via the floo network again.

On the walk back up to the castle, Rose hung back with Hugo, who stilled looked miserable.

"Hugo, are you going to be ok? Do you need to go back to grandpa Weasley's house for a few days?"

"No." he finally spoke for the first time in days. "I'll be ok, school will help keep me busy and I won't think about grandma as much."

"But we can't forget her, we have to remember her as she was, not as the frail woman near the end who could barely speak."

"I know. I'm just not as strong as you Rosie." Hugo used the nickname her parents usually called her. This showed Rose that he was feeling especially vulnerable and weak. "I mean I haven't seen you cry since the time I was trying to ride a broomstick and I collided into you."

"You broke my arm if I remember correctly." Rose muttered. "But, it- it helps to let someone in. I mean, cry in front of someone you know won't judge you and will be content just to sit and hold you while you need it, to listen when you pour out your emotions and then help you get back to your normal self."

"Like Scorpius did for you?"

Rose looked ahead at Scorpius, James, Albus and Lily, walking not too far away. If they were silent, she guessed they could overhear their conversation. And she was right, the four of them were listening in to see if their grieving friends were going to be alright.

"Yeah, and I'm sure Lily is ready to do the same." Rose said as she pulled her brother in for a hug from the side.

 **END OF MAY/START OF JUNE**

The rest of February went pretty quickly, when valentines came James received piles of letters and chocolates which he ended up sharing with his cousins on a lazy Saturday morning then spent the rest of the day with his new girlfriend. March and April sped past even faster and soon it was the end of May. Students all over the castle were preparing for exams.

Rose was sitting at the Slytherin table at breakfast as their head of house was handing out the exam timetables. She looked up and saw Professor Longbottom was also handing out timetables to those on the Gryffindor table. She was excited and stood to rush off so fast that she didn't notice her orange juice spill all over Albus' toast and drip on to his lap.

The sound of Albus complaining forced Longbottom to look up at the Slytherin table, their head of house only rolled his eyes and completely ignored the mess. Longbottom flicked his wand and Albus was dry, his toast, however was still soggy. This distraction led to him almost crashing into Rose who was running towards him at an alarming pace.

"Rose!" Longbottom warned as he quickly moved out of the way.

"Sorry Professor. Do you have my exam timetable?"

"Yes yes, one moment." He turned to look through his floating pile of papers.

Rose turned to see Hugo and the rest of her cousins staring at their timetables. Apart from James who was too busy talking to some girl to notice the timetable had been given to him. Hugo looked alarmed and Lily was working out how many days she had left to revise.

"This is impossible!" Hugo exclaimed

"I know! There simply aren't enough days to revise." Lily started to panic.

"You'll do fine." Professor Longbottom sympathised with his students. "I remember my first year of exams, I only scraped through, my good Herbology grade making up for my abysmal Potions one." he gave an encouraging smile as he handed Rose her timetable.

She returned to the Slytherin table to study her own timetable.

Monday: Transfiguration. Charms. Study of Ancient Runes.

Tuesday: Care of Magical Creatures. Potions.

Wednesday: History of Magic. Herbology.

Thursday: Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Rose sighed as she wedged herself between Scorpius and Albus. "Well at least I only have one exam on the Thursday."

Albus looked over at Rose's paper, and then at his own.

Monday: Transfiguration. Charms.

Tuesday: Potions.

Wednesday: History of Magic. Herbology.

Thursday: Defence Against the Dark Arts. Divination. Muggle Studies.

"Great, that's the one day I have more than one exam, I won't be able to relax straight away." Albus grumbled.

"That's not true." Rose said in a cheerful tone which made Albus perk up and smile. "Look, you have two exams on the Monday."

Albus laid his head on the table and moaned loudly. Scorpius and Rose smiled at their friend's over exaggerated dismay.

"Let's see yours then Scorpius." Albus looked up long enough to ask before hitting his head against the table once more.

"It's not very different from Rose's. But here."

Monday: Transfiguration. Charms.

Tuesday: Care of Magical Creatures. Potions,

Wednesday: History of Magic. Herbology.

Thursday: Defence Against the Dark Arts. Muggle Studies.

"Oh, I only have two exams each day." Scorpius added happily. This made Albus groan louder at his bad luck.

Rose chuckled. "We'll be ok, it's only three exams for one day. It'll be over before you know it."

"Easy for you to say! You're a genius!" Albus exclaimed.

"No I'm not. You'll be fine, we'll all revise together in the library." Rose put an encouraging hand on her cousin's shoulder.

On the Saturday night before the week of exams, the trio were in the library. This is where they had spent most of their free time for the past few weeks and the sight of the same four walls covered in thick books day in and day out was starting to get to Albus. That, and exam nerves.

"Hey Albus," Rose put her hand softly on Albus which made him physically jump. "Why don't you go to bed. You've stared at the same page of notes for the past hour. I think you've got all the information on the freezing charm that you possibly can, plus you've tried it out on Lily so many times, I think you'll be ok."

"Yeah, I guess." Albus stood. "What about you?"

"I'm staying here for a bit longer, I just want to go over the numbers for my Ancient Runes exam a few more times" Rose chewed her lip and flicked through her book

"Well, have fun. What about you Scorpius? Are you going to bed or staying here with Rose?"

Scorpius looked up from his transfiguration book and looked at Rose who looked messier than ever. The stress of revision was making her more agitated and for the second time he had known her, she was loosing sleep.

"I think I'll stay for an hour or so."

"Right, goodnight you two." Albus gave a lazy wave and trudged off to bed.

Rose sat for a few minutes reading her notes and mumbling while Scorpius watched her. She suddenly started panicking, looking under every book and piece of paper that surrounded her on the desk.

"What are you looking for?"

"There's just this book I got out the other day." Rose's voice trailed off. "It really helped me, I'm not sure if I returned it or not." She stood and started scouring the book shelves until she stopped, looked up and saw it to a top shelf, she moaned. "Well this sucks."

Scorpius stood behind her, he was about a head taller, and spotted the book she needed. He reached up to get it for her, but even he couldn't reach.

"Well, thanks for trying." Rose grunted as she pulled a stool closer to the shelf. She found that, even with the stool, she couldn't reach the book.

Scorpius bent down and lifted her on his shoulders. She was a bit shaky and alarmed that this had been his first idea. Once Rose had steadied herself by holding on to the shelves, she grabbed the book and looked around the library. There were still a few students up and they were all looking at Rose on Scorpius's shoulders.

"People are looking." she whispered down to him

"Let them."

Rose climbed down and found her self flat against the book case, with Scorpius facing her. They were so close. She was breathing heavily.

"Umm, thanks." she nodded and waved the book.

"Yeah," Scorpius cleared his throat. "I thought- I didn't think- yeah- you're welcome."

"You know, I could've used a summoning charm or a levitation charm."

"We don't learn summoning charms until our fourth year." Scorpius's mouth was getting dry and his heart was racing faster and faster, they hadn't really been so close to each other since their kiss in the previous year. She smelt like daises and new parchment. He smelt like peppermint and old books.

"Oh yeah," Rose forced a small laugh.

"I should go to bed." Scorpius rushed out the sentence, he felt that if he stayed this close to her any longer, he wouldn't be able to breath.

"I'll see you in the morning then."

Scorpius took a step back. As he picked up his belongings, he asked, "Do you want me to stay and test you on your ancient runes numbers?"

"Oh, actually," Rose looked at the book she had just retrieved and saw that she had picked up the wrong one. Her ears went a slight shade of pink, embarrassed at her own stupidity because she had been so flustered. "Well, I was thinking of going up to bed myself." She began to put all her own belongings in her bag.

"Why don't I walk you to your common room and I can test you as we walk." Scorpius sheepishly asked, wanting to spend more time with her.

However, on their walk to the Gryffindor dormitories they did not talk about their exams or revision, instead they got to talking about the small things that they didn't know about each other.

"I don't know what you mean, we know lots about each other."

"Not really."

"Like what? What do you want to know?"

"You know, the small things that make up a person."

Rose giggled, which surprised herself as she had forgotten all of her stress, although Scorpius himself was also surprising. "Scorpius, I've never seen you so chatty."

He shrugged. "I guess you just bring it out of me, you're easy to talk to. So, what's your favourite colour?"

Rose frowned. He rarely ever spoke so much in front of her, then how could it be that she 'brought it out of him.'? She shook her head and answered. "Ok, I would have to say green. A dark but vibrant green, like gillyweed. What's your favourite colour?"

"Red, well not red, more an orange red like the colour of a Pheonix feather."

Rose smiled at his enthusiasm. They had arrived at the fat lady painting. "Thanks Scorpius, for helping me relax after revising for so long. I'll see you tomorrow." Rose yawned and turned to give the password to the fat lady.

Scorpius whispered a goodnight and looked at the clock in the corridor, he had about two minutes to get to the Slytherin dormitories before curfew ended or the care taker would have a go at him. So he ran, which he found surprisingly easy despite his tiredness and the heavy bag of books. A relaxing few minutes alone with Rose had given him some new found energy.

Once he got to his dormitory, he found that Albus was still awake, reading his transfiguration text book.

"Hey Scorpius." Albus shut his book and put it on his nightstand. "I assumed you'd be longer."

"That's what I thought but, well, we were tired and Rose looked stressed."

The boys said goodnight and both slept soundly. Rose on the other hand stayed awake in bed for a few more hours, staring out the window. She thought of the fun, however brief, time alone with Scorpius. She thought that if that became a regular occurrence, she might just find herself liking him a lot more.

 **THURSDAY. LAST DAY OF EXAMS**

Rose had just finished her defence against the dark arts exam and was lying on the grass next to the lake. It was sunny with a cool breeze and Rose was enjoying her time to relax, knowing that all her exams were over, she could worry about how they went tomorrow if she really had to. She was waiting for Albus who must have been half way through his divination exam and Scorpius who was doing some extra last minute revision for their muggle studies exam which was straight after. Rose knew that she was going to be on her own for a few hours.

Rose heard foot steps behind her and that person groaned as they sat next to her. She squinted open one eye to see a boy from her year which she kind of recognised.

"Umm, hi." the nervous boy said while not daring to look Rose in the eye.

She sat up and looked at him expectantly, waiting for an introduction of some sort as she didn't think that they had ever spoken to one another.

"Hi?" Rose politely responded

"Oh, s-sorry." they boy nervously stuttered "Y-you probably don't know my name. I'm F-Felix Stirling. Robin's twin brother, I'm in Hufflepuff."

Rose still was a bit confused as to how she had never met him before.

"We were in the same potions class together last year. I was the kid that made the best hair-raising potion and your friend, Philomela Abel-Roy's hair wouldn't go down for a week."

Rose laughed at the memory, "Oh yeah, I remember. Nice to finally speak to you Felix." She stuck out her hand for a firm handshake.

The boy shook it and a wide smile spread across his face.

"So, I guess you're finished with all your exams this year." Felix said as he sat next to Rose. His bag made a loud thump as he dropped it next to him.

"Yep, I'm free. What about you?" Rose grinned.

"Oh, I've got one more exam today."

"That's right, I remember at the start of the year Finely told me that you take muggle studies."

Rose could hear a sniggering from behind her. She snapped her head around to see Mae Blinston, a Slytherin girl who had always laughed at her behind her back,

Felix's face lit up with glee once more. "You know what subjects I take?"

"Well, no, I only know that you take mu-"

"That's so kind of you!" Felix interrupted Rose with his surprise. "You noticed me even before we met! You're such a kind and smart person Rose, I actually can't believe you're taking time to actually talk to me."

"Well, I'm not that great, but thanks, I guess." Rose was a bit overwhelmed by Felix's praise.

Felix had had a crush on Rose all year, and because he had never spoken to her, he made assumptions of her personality based on what little he saw of her. And in his head, he created his own perfect girl whom he assumed was the real Rose.

"So, you've got your muggle studies exam in a little bit." Rose said after an awkward silence where Felix just stared at her. "Do you want me to help you do some last minute revision?"

"Oh! That would be great, let me just get my book out." Felix started to rummage around his large rucksack. "This is so nice of you Rose."

"I'm just trying to make this conversation go somewhere." Rose mumbled to herself as she looked across the peaceful lake which glimmered in the sunshine. When Felix gave her a muggle studies text book, she spoke up. "I'll go to a random page and test you on something."

And that's how Rose spent the last hour of peaceful time on her own, helping someone else revise. She didn't mind, it was just that she would rather be asleep in the sun without some awkward person staring at her and smiling at her every word.

Felix was just answering a question about muggle transport, when Rose spotted Scorpius and Albus exiting the building and walking towards the exam hall. Rose dropped the muggle studies book and ran over to them. Felix was left staring after her, then he packed his bag and slowly made his way to catch up.

"Hey Rose!" Albus greeted his cousin with a smile.

"Hey. How was your second exam of the day?" she clung on for normal conversation without awkwardness.

Albus shrugged. "Divination went ok. I haven't had a chance to think about it as I have just spent the last ten minutes doing Muggle Studies revision with Scorpius."

"I've been doing the same." Rose groaned which gained her a confused look from Scorpius and Albus. "Felix Stirling," Rose turned to see that the boy in question was still making his way towards the trio. "Hufflepuff, in our year. Actually, he's in your muggle studies class. He came to talk to me and I ended up helping him revise."

"Ooh fun." Albus sarcastically smirked.

"He's not a bad guy, he's ok. He's just a bit awkward." Rose shrugged.

And Scorpius knew why, because Felix had a crush on Rose, Lloyd had told him earlier in the year. Scorpius couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy and dislike towards Felix, however he hid this.

Felix had finally caught up to the trio.

"Hi Rose, me again."

"Oh hey, look I'm sorry I dropped your book and ran off." Rose sympathised when she saw that he was still happy to see her even though what she had down was quite selfish. "I just wanted to wish these guys good luck before they went to their exam." Rose patted Felix on the shoulder. "And good luck to you too."

"Thanks Rose." Felix grinned. "Can I talk to you privately before I go into my exam?"

Rose looked at Albus and Scorpius, who were pretending not to be listening to the conversation.

"Umm, sure. Lets go over here." Rose led Felix a few steps away from her friends.

"Well, I was wondering if," Felix was obviously nervous. "Well, would you like to, and you don't have to, but well…"

"What is it?" Rose calmly asked even though his stuttering was making her impatient

"Would, would you- only if you want to- do you want to meet up during the holidays? I mean, we could go and get an ice-cream in diagon alley or something."

Rose was surprised at his request, she tried not to show this. She was tempted to say no because just sitting with him for an hour was so awkward, but he was nice, and it took a lot of courage for him to ask her and he seemed to like her so she felt pressured to accept. Plus he was about to go into an exam, she couldn't very well upset him now.

"Sure, it'll be nice." Rose weakly smiled

"Ok!" Felix was over the moon. "I'll send you a letter soon, and we can arrange the date!"

Felix happily ran off to his exam and Rose turned to see that Albus and Scorpius had slowly edged their way towards Rose during that conversation. They had heard everything.

Rose rolled her eyes. "He's about to go into an exam! I couldn't say no!" She sighed "It is going to be really awkward." She looked at her cousin who found this amusing. She gently kicked him and Albus's smug smile went. "Now go to your exam."

Albus sniggered and left with Scorpius, who was still silent.

"Good luck!" Rose called after them before finding a tree to sit under. Exhausted from all her exams and late nights doing last minute revision all week, she fell asleep for twenty minutes before going up to her dormitory to pack.

 **ON THE TRAIN HOME**

Hugo had finally returned to his usual self, with the help of Lily, and was found sitting on his own in a compartment before the train had left the station in Hogsmeade.

Rose had walked in, talking to Scorpius and Albus behind her.

"Hugo found a place to sit." she called back to them.

"Rose, can I talk to you for a sec." Hugo sounded upset. This confused Rose as she had not seen him like this in quite a few weeks.

"Sure. Hey Al, can you save this compartment, me and Hugo will just be outside for a bit."

Once outside, Hugo spoke in a panicked voice.

"Oh Rose, I don't know how to do this! I feel so guilty!" Hugo spoke quickly.

Rose held him in a hug which seemed to calm him down.

"What's wrong?"

"Grandma, I haven't thought about her in weeks! I've just been busy I guess, which makes me feel guilty." He paced back and forth fidgeting.

"Hugo, she would have wanted us to move on and not mourn her 24/7. It's good that you have been able to focus on other things, I guess exams are helpful in that way."

"Well, there's that, plus, since as long as I can remember, we've always spent a week every summer at their house. Now what will we do?"

"We'll go to the Burrow and visit grandpa Granger and our Weasley grandparents at the same time."

"Oh, yeah." Hugo chuckled. "It'll be nice for him, he won't be completely alone without grandma."

"I wonder how he'll do living in a wizard house?"

They both laughed at the mental image as Hugo let go of her hug."You're a good sister, did you know that?"

"Yes, yes I did." Rose chuckled. And the siblings got back on the train, they still had ten minutes before the train left.

Meanwhile in the compartment, Scorpius and Albus sat talking about their exams by the window, when Felix Stirling walked in.

"Is Rose going to sit in here with you? Can I join you guys?" he didn't wait for any answer before sitting down next to Scorpius.

Albus could see his friend's growing annoyance as the three boys sat in silence. He was relieved when James walked in.

James didn't notice the stranger next to Scorpius at first and plonked himself down next to Albus. He was sulking.

"Guess what." he sighed as he lazily turned his head to look at his brother.

"Some girl broke up with you."Albus didn't sound surprised

"Jenny told everyone already!" James seemed outraged, but it was obvious that he was only slightly angry.

"I thought it was Milly."

"No we broke up about a month ago. So how did you find out about Jenny?"

Albus shrugged and Scorpius answered, still looking annoyed that Felix was there. "We overheard some girl-."

"I heard them too. Some girls squealing that James Potter was single again. Couldn't not hear it just as we were exiting our Muggle Studies exam yesterday." Felix interrupted excitedly.

Scorpius scowled at Felix, who didn't notice as he was looking at James, then turned back to look out the window.

James, for the first time, noticed Felix. He leaned between Albus and Scorpius and quietly asked, "Who's the eager beaver?"

Felix did look excitable, from his wide eyes, big grin and the fact that he sat upright and on the edge of his seat.

"I'm Felix Stirling. I'm in Hufflepuff and I'm a friend of Rose."

James looked back at Albus to confirm this.

"He has a crush on her and literally only just talked to her for the first time ever, yesterday." he whispered. James nodded and the noticed that Scorpius was looking annoyed.

"So, why are you here Stirling?" James didn't cut corners and asked him directly.

"Oh, well I thought I'd sit with Rose." Felix was not disheartened by James' direct rudeness. "You see, we're going to meet up during the holidays and I really want to get to know her."

"No kidding." James mumbled and relaxed into his seat. "Well, we've also got Hugo and Lilly coming here along with Rose, so you might need to move, or better yet get out, so there's room for them."

Felix nodded. "That's ok, I just wanted to see Rose again before we left."

James was confused by the lack of offence that Felix was taking.

They sat in silence again.

"So Stirling, you're in Albus's year." James started a conversation again.

Felix eagerly nodded in reply.

"So, you know Finley Norwid."

"Actually, it's Norwood, and yes he's in my dorm-"

"I could've sworn his name was Norwid." James muttered to Albus, who just shrugged. He turn back to Felix and smirked. "I see, you're friends with the kid that my cousin caked in mud."

Felix looked perplexed. His image of a perfect girl that Rose was, became distorted in his mind. "Well, I guess. But Rose is a very kind and smart and generous and nice person, she can't have meant to hurt him or anyone else for that matter."

James nodded and scoffed. "Yeah sure, very mild our Rose." his sarcastic comment was lost on Felix. James turned to mutter to Albus "Although I wouldn't get on her bad side. Even if my life was hanging in the balance."

"Your life would be hanging in the balance." Albus made Scorpius smile briefly.

Lily skipped in , but her mood suddenly dulled a bit when she noticed a stranger. She quietly sat down next to James and warily watched Felix. Lily searched her brothers and Scorpius for an explanation.

"This is, someone Stirling." James answered as he sighed, he was also getting annoyed that a stranger sat with them. "He thinks that he's a friend of Rose."

"Oh, but I am a friend of Rose."

Scorpius and James rolled their eyes.

"Well," Lily apprehensively spoke to Felix after seeing the two boys's reaction to him, but Albus didn't seem to care. "I'm Rose's cousin, my name-"

"Is Lily." Felix again interrupted. "I know who you all are, I've seen you with Rose."

The three others in the compartment looked worried. Hugo and Rose walked in.

"Rose!" Felix stood to greet her, accidentally getting in the way so that Scorpius, Albus, James and Lily couldn't see their cousins and Rose and Hugo couldn't enter the compartment. "Hi."

"Umm, hi Felix. What are you doing here?" Rose tried not to sound rude.

"You're so modest. I just came to say goodbye to you, my friend, and have a nice summer!" Felix held her hand and squeezed it. He took a step closer and whispered into her ear, "We'll have a great date this summer, no need to worry about it, I'll see you then." And he gave her the biggest grin she had ever seen and practically skipped out of the compartment.

Of course, the compartment was so small and absolutely full of people, so they all heard exactly what Felix had whispered to Rose. She stood there, frozen. Alarmed that Felix had read more into her brief kindness than she had meant. Hugo managed to squeeze past Rose and sat next to Scorpius, who's mood had improved slightly since Felix had left.

James whistled at Rose, which snapped her out of her worried trance. She spun around to face her family and Scorpius. She still didn't speak, her mouth just opened and closed like a goldfish. Hugo moved so that there was a gap between himself and Scorpius, he patted the seat and took hold of Rose's hand to guide her to the seat. Hugo wrapped one arm around her.

They all sat in silence.

Until Lily broke it a few minutes later.

"So James, Jenny broke up with you." She stated, trying to start a conversation.

James groaned, "How did you find out?"

"Jenny told Rory Green, who's a year above her, because she has a crush on him, he told Anjelica Gully to make her jealous but she didn't care because Jenny is, like two years younger than her and Anjelica is so over Rory. Then Anjelica told her brother, Gregg, who is in your year, James. And he told his friend Grant Hathaway, who is in Gryffindor, in the same year as Al, and he told some guy called Parkinson who told Rory Green, who already knew and he flipped out in the library because he's still annoyed that Anjelica is over him and because of the fact that Jenny has a crush on him didn't make Anjelica jealous. Daniel Leyton and Finely Norwood, those guys who Rose caked in mud, overheard Rory's little outburst and they told Robin Stirling, that guy Felix's twin sister, she's in Ravenclaw. Then Robin told Philomela, who is in the same dorm as Rose, and Philomela told me."

James blinked at Lily.

"You know that I stopped listening half way through, right?"

"Yeah, I know." Lily sighed and Hugo crossed to sit next to her, which squished Albus right into the corner by the window. Albus could barely move.

"I was listening Lil's" Hugo encouraged.

Albus wriggled out of the corner and marched in a huff to sit next to Rose on the other side of the compartment.

"Rose, are you over the shock yet?" Albus asked cautiously

"What shock? Oh, you meant the shock I just had with Felix. No, not over that yet. You meant the shock that I've got a date with some awkward guy I just met yesterday, who seems to know an awful lot about me, and you guys. Right that shock, yeah. No. That was a shock though, right? I mean I barely know him and out of pity I agree to meet up with him and he turns it into a date! I mean I'm only 14 I shouldn't be going on proper dates!" Rose spoke so quickly that no one could completely understand what she was saying.

"Umm, Rose, you're starting to ramble like Lily when she gossips." Hugo smirked

"Or like Albus when he worries or like Albus when he's confused or like Albus when he's-" James interrupted

"Yeah yeah, ha ha, very funny. We get it James, I talk a lot." Albus rolled his eyes.

Scorpius smiled, this family was so amusing to him.

"Are you up for coming with us to the beach again this year?" Albus excitedly asked Scorpius.

"Of course, if your parents don't mind."

James and Lily shrugged and smiled.

"It's fine, they don't mind you." Albus answered,

"Right, I'm going to find Lorcan." James stood and left.

"Are you going to come this year?" Albus turned to ask Rose and Hugo.

The siblings looked at each other.

"Well, I guess. Probably, but we'll have to ask our parents." Hugo hesitated to answer, he wanted to go but he didn't want to get their hopes up.

"Hey! Your parents might come along too!" Lily added happily.

Scorpius slumped a little bit, he knew that Rose's dad didn't particularly like him, which would put a damper on the whole trip. Rose seemed to notice this and whispered to him. No one else noticed as Albus had started rambling about how outraged he was to have three exams on one day.

"My dad probably won't come. The day the Potter's go to the beach is one of the rare days off that my uncle Harry takes off, which means that work starts to pile up for my dad so he has to stay late just to complete it all." Rose had to reassure Scorpius' concerned face. "Which is ok, because my uncle Harry has to do all the work when dad takes a week off to visit my muggle grandp-" Rose slowed down as she fully realised what Hugo had been feeling earlier, that it was the end of an era, no longer could they just pop up to visit their muggle grandparents. That was the week that they could fully appreciate what they had and take a week off from magic. It was also a time of education, where Hermione taught them all about muggle lifestyles.

Scorpius gave Rose's hand a squeeze and softly smiled.

"It's ok, I'll come. And I hope you will too."

 **SCORPIUS AND HIS FAMILY RETURNING HOME AFTER A WEEK IN BELGIUM WITH THE PARKINSONS**

The Malfoy family were just finishing their dinner in the usual large house by the Canal, each year they stayed in a distant relative's home while the relative themselves stayed in Malfoy Manor, visiting Lucius and Narcissa. The small family did not know the relative well but were grateful for the getaway.

Pansy Parkinson and her son Lloyd also joined them for the last evening.

The room was quiet except for the occasional scrape of a fork on a plate and the small crackle of the fire. Scorpius and Lloyd glared at one another from opposite sides of the table, Pansy smiled at Draco whenever he looked up, he however did not notice her and was focused on eating and making mental notes of what he had left to pack and reminding himself where the portkey they would use to get home was located. Astoria, who usually scowled at Pansy at meal times, was instead glancing at the clock every few minutes.

When the clock stroke 7pm, she stood and addressed Draco. "My dear, we must leave."

Draco looked like a dear caught in headlights, he looked around the table to see that Scorpius was also eager to leave. He ignored Pansy's desperately disappointed face.

"Of course." He nodded politely to his guests, then whispered to Astoria. "Shouldn't we wait a little bit? Just leaving would be rude to our guests."

"Nonsense." Astoria spoke loud enough so that all could hear. "We're all staying in the same house, we can leave anytime that we want today." She leaned in to whisper to Draco, "Plus, there's that surprise for," she tilted her head to indicate that she was speaking of Scorpius.

"Yes, you're quite right. Good evening to you both," he once again turned to his guests. "I wish you a pleasant journey home, and we shall see you at Platform 9 3/4 I expect. Come now Scorpius."

Draco and Astoria linked arms and began to leave, Scorpius quickly got up and hurried out of the room ahead of them. He knew his mother would freak if she knew that he had only half packed, being an underaged wizard made packing excruciatingly dull.

"Oh, but Draco," Pansy stood at her place and called for him. He turned to look at her, still linked arm in arm with Astoria. "Why wait until the train journey home? We could visit you at your home any time, I know how Scorpius loves to practise quidditch with my Lloyd."

Draco sighed. "Very well, we'll arrange a day in a few weeks time. But for now, goodbye and I hope you enjoyed your annual holiday with us." He politely nodded and left without waiting for an answer.

Pansy slumped back into her chair and watched Lloyd finish his glass of pumpkin juice.

"Do you actually get along with Scorpius?"

"Well mother, I know he doesn't care much for me."

"Why don't you make more of an effort? Hang around with him more or something."

"He has those other friends who also do not take kindly to me. Potters and Weasleys."

"Oh yes, you said before. It's a shame really that you aren't in his year. You may have been able to keep him away from them."

Lloyd gave his mother a long suffering look. "Well, that's not my fault."

"Don't you use that tone with me!" Pansy snapped then slumped again. "You've been spending too much time with your father. By the way, you'll be living with him for the next week. As soon as we get home, Blaise should be there to pick you up."

Lloyd rolled his eyes then went off to finish packing.

Scorpius was in the entrance hall with Astoria, waiting for Draco to finish the double check that they had packed everything.

"Don't get me wrong, I was glad to leave early, but I don't understand why. You usually love our holidays to Belgium as it's the only time you get away from my grandparents. I'm just surprised that you wanted to go home any earlier than we have to."

"Don't question me Scorpius, we just need to be home as soon as possible and you need to be well rested."

"Well rested? For what?"

Astoria managed to get out of answering as Draco had arrived with his suitcase floating behind him.

"Are we ready?" he looked at his family who nodded in answer. "Very well then, our portkey is that blue umbrella. Hold on and we'll go." he pointed to an old umbrella way lay dusty in a corner by the front door.

Once they had arrived home, Astoria sent Scorpius straight up to bed without evening allowing a quick hello to his grandparents. 'You'll see them tomorrow morning, even if it is for a brief moment.' was her only explanation.

It was almost 10pm by the time Scorpius was ready for bed and, although it was late, he wasn't very tired and decided that Albus would probably be awake so he sent his friend a quick letter.

Albus

Just wanted to say hello and that I'm back home from Belgium. My mum acting suspicious and sent me straight to bed as I need to be 'well rested' for something tomorrow which she won't explain. I'll write to you tomorrow and tell you what it is, that is if I have a chance. Who knows what is going on. Last time she was this secretive, her surprise was that she had invited Lloyd to stay over all week to make my half term less dull, she didn't understand that I like dull.

You don't have to answer this, I know it's a bit late, just send Vincent back, he'll probably go hunting before he comes home.

Anyway, can't wait to go to the beach with you and your family next week!

Scorpius

Scorpius went to Vincent's cage to see that the owl was still awake, the poor guy had been stuck in his cage for a week with his grandmother feeding him dried food from a box. Vincent was eager to stretch his wings and was happy to see Scorpius home. Once his owl had left, Scorpius left his window open so that Vincent could get in. Then he went to bed and slept soundly, dreaming of what fun he might have next week with his friends.

He was woken up by someone shouting on the first floor so loudly that he could hear it in his room on the third floor. Scorpius grabbed his dressing gown and hurriedly put it on as he ran down to see what was going on. As he was coming down the last flight of stairs, a red mass of hair scurried past him in a blur. Scorpius rubbed his eyes, perhaps he imagined the shouting?

"Oh, dear, you're up." Astoria saw he son sitting bewildered on the bottom step. "Come to the kitchen, Petit has made some breakfast."

"Petit made breakfast for us?"

"Yes, well, your grandfather is in one of his moods where no one can tell him anything. He's been especially harsh to poor Petit this morning."

Someone was shouting again, Scorpius recognised it as his grandfather. He asked his mother what the shouting was about.

"Oh, that, like I said he's in one of his moods. And he's just not happy that certain people are within his household." Astoria rolled her eyes and led a even more confused Scorpius to the kitchen.

What he saw there was a shock. Sitting at the long table in the kitchen was Rose, Hugo, Albus, Lily, James and Ginny. All happily talking amongst themselves, ignoring the outraged shout of Lucius.

"Scorpius! Nice to see that you're awake." Albus smirked and walked over to his friend to give him a pat on the shoulder.

"Grandad actually let Weasley's into the house?" was all Scorpius could say.

Astoria scoffed. "Your grandfather doesn't do anything but sit in that armchair in their parlour and complain. I think I've earned more right than him to allow friends of my son to enter my home." She turned to the house elf who was bringing her a mug of tea. "Thank you Petit, but you really didn't have to." Her voice was more sympathetic towards the poor creature.

There was another shout from the large downstairs parlour.

"Sorry, Petit, I think grandfather is calling you." Scorpius gave a small kindhearted smile to the house elf.

Rose saw this and her original disgust that Scorpius owned a house elf melted a little bit. But only a little, she had seen enough of her mother's research on the mistreatment of elves pinned around her office in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures at the Ministry of Magic. She decided to let it slip for now and just be happy that Scorpius was coming.

She could have a go at him later.

Once Petit had left, Scorpius stood awkwardly looking at his friends.

"I'm guessing you haven't told him yet?" Ginny finally spoke up.

Astoria sat at the head of the table and grinned. "I thought it might be a nice surprise."

"Mother?"

"Well," Ginny answered for her. "We've decided to extend our beach day to a three day trip. If you like, and your mum has already given you permission, you can come with us now or just meet us at the beach on Saturday."

Scorpius couldn't hide his happiness. His face broke out into the widest grin. "If you're sure you want me there-"

"Of course we do mate!" Albus chimed in as his siblings and cousins all spoke at once saying similar things.

"Then its agreed." Ginny smiled. "You will come with us today, once you're packed, stay the night at our house, then we'll all go to the beach for our three-day beach holiday. I hope you don't mind camping."

Scorpius was ecstatic, "I've got to pack!" He had never been camping and he couldn't wait to go. He ran upstairs, forgetting his manners and Albus and Rose followed him.

"Thank you so much Mrs Potter, are you sure this won't be too much for you?" Astoria poured Ginny another cup of tea.

"I think I'll be alright, Harry won't be there. But I've seen my mum raise seven children, I think I can handle six."

"But, are you sure? Why can't Mr Potter go?"

"Well," Ginny sighed and rolled her eyes, remembering her earlier conversation with her husband. "Some people can be slightly unorganised and are unable to finish their work in time to book days off." Ginny smiled at the concerned woman. "It will be ok. I can handle anything, besides, Scorpius is so polite and my children and my niece and nephew get along with him so well, that I don't think there will be any problems." Then she rolled her eyes again as she added "If there is to be any arguing, it will probably be between my own three."

Lily and James gave looks of mock outrage.

"Mother!" James was overdoing his sarcasm which gained him laughs from both Lily and Hugo. "Well, I am shocked! I'm a responsible young man, I should think you raised me well enough not to indulge in the annoyance of my little siblings." then he rubbed Lily's hair, messing it all up.

"James!" Lily growled as she tried to put her hair back in place. Hugo tried to hide his laughter because Lily started to scowl at him too.

Ginny sighed, "I guess having just one child is a bit easier." She smiled as the three children stopped scowling and had a normal conversation.

"One child still isn't too easy. But try having to live your parents-in-law who are not anti-muggle or pro-pureblood but are still quite conservative."

Meanwhile, in Scorpius's room, the young boy was excitedly packing while Rose and Albus looked around.

"You're room is massive! I'm afraid you'll have to share a room with me tonight." Albus was staring out the huge window which faced the large gardens as he leaned on the window seat which could easily fit an adult lying down.

"Yeah, and the tent is pretty big but you'll have to have a cramped bunk bed." Rose commented as she marvels at the sheer size of his desk.

"It's ok, I've never been camping and I'm really looking forward to it." Scorpius sat on his suitcase to try and close it.

"This would be easier with magic." Albus grumbled while he helped Scorpius struggle with the suitcase.

Rose flopped on to the bed. "So, you have a house elf." She tried to say casually but both boys new that she extremely disliked it.

"Yeah, well, no. Petit is my grandparent's house elf, they said she was a wedding gift to my parents, but mum was against it all and dad didn't know how to refuse the gift without making my grandparents hating my mum more than they already do." Scorpius said uninterestedly as he continued to close the buckles on the suitcase.

"So why not set her free?" Rose was annoyed at his excuse

"That would extremely offend my grandparents."

Scorpius and Albus then cheered as the suitcase closed. They both flopped on to the bed next to Rose. "We told Petit that she didn't have to do anything for us, that she can just live here, but my grandparents now order her around so she didn't really escape, plus she's so eager to help that we seriously can't stop her."

Rose rolled her eyes, she still wasn't satisfied with his answer, but it would have to do if they were going to have a harmonious time at the beach.

They used the floo network to get back to the Potter residence, before Scorpius left he decided to poke his head into his grandparents parlour to say goodbye. His grandfather called him a traitor to all the family, and that Weasley's or anyone related to them were not welcome within ten miles of Malfoy manner. Astoria overheard this and told Lucius to get off his high horse and start to accept others. This is when an agreement broke out and Scorpius slipped away to follow Rose into the fireplace.

 **FRIDAY MORNING**

Scorpius slept soundly on a mattress on the floor in Albus' room. At around 6am he was shaken awake by Hugo. He realised that, despite the rough shoving, Scorpius had the nicer wake up call as Albus had a bucket of water dumped over him by James and Rose.

"MERLIN'S BEARD!" Albus shouted as he sat bolt upright.

His cousins and siblings couldn't stop laughing at him.

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!" Albus was still shouting. "Shoot." he suddenly whispered, "Have I woken up mum and dad?"

Once the rest had finished laughing, Rose answered.

"Nah, your dad has been up for about half an hour and he's about to go to work, he wanted to say goodbye before we left. And your mum has been up, since like 4am 'cause she wanted to finish all her work so she doesn't have to do anything while we're camping."

The six of them ran downstairs to say goodbye to Harry, he hugged his children and told them to have a good trip the he ruffled his niece and nephew's hair. Albus was glad that, for once, his hair wasn't being ruffled. Scorpius held back a bit, not wanting to intrude on their family time and feeling slightly awkward.

"Hey, Scorpius." Harry called before turning on the spot to apparate, "I'm glad you're going with them, you're a good friend to my kids and they all like you. I'll be here when you get back." He kissed Ginny for the fifth time that morning on the forehead, turned and vanished.

Scorpius smiled, he had, at least, been accepted into the Potter family. It was just Ron Weasley who didn't seem to like him.

 **FRIDAY NIGHT IN THE TENT**

Ginny blew out the last candle and lit her wand to check on the children. James was on a top bunk, lying on his front, his face all squashed as he snored. His arm hung off the bed and right in Albus's, who was on the bottom bunk, face. Ginny then realised that James had taken his brother's blanket. She slowly removed it from him and tucked in her sleeping youngest son. Hugo was also on a top bunk and lay sprawled out across the mattress in an odd shape and Scorpius on the bunk below him. Ginny bent down to check on Scorpius. He lay peacefully, with a book laying open on his chest. Ginny smiled. Lily was curled up in a neat ball on the top bunk, with her blanket kicked half off the bed as it dangled down, blocking the view of Rose on the bottom bunk. Ginny gently lifted it to see that Rose was not there, a sudden spike of fear arose until she realised a small blue light dimly shining from outside. She unzipped the canvass door to see Rose, sitting in her red jumper with a large 'R' on it from her grandma Weasley, holding a jar with a single bluebell flame inside it and an old book laying closed next to her.

"Rose, it's late, don't you want to go to bed?" Ginny spoke softly as she sat next to her niece.

"If it's alright with you, I'd like to sit and watch the stars for a bit. It's what I do if I can't sleep, they're so fascinating."

Ginny smiled, "These bluebell flames are pretty cool. But you know, you're technically not allowed to use magic. You're still underage."

"I know, but mum taught me how to do them. I love them, so does dad. And I don't think I'll be kicked out of Hogwarts for a tiny bluebell flame anyway. Plus, it's stuck in a tiny jar. No damage is possible."

"Unless you drop it." Ginny chuckled as she joked with Rose.

"Ah, true I could drop it, but it's quite safe from my clumsiness. The bluebell flame can be touched, penetrated and held without it burning the holder, though it is known to burn materials such as clothing and plants. As such, it may be safely carried in small objects, like this jar, without the object being damaged. These unique flames can also be directed to a desired location by its caster, and return to its original position." Rose grinned smugly.

"Straight out of a text book?" Ginny asked knowingly, giving a small smile as Rose reminded her so much of Hermione.

Rose sighed, she wasn't offended by her aunt's teasing, but she was right. "Am I that predictable? I mean, I remember stuff well and that comes in handy. I answer all the questions first in class, if Scorpius doesn't get there first. I know people tease me behind my back, they get annoyed because I'm a 'pretentious little know it all' and a 'walking textbook'."

"Rose, never apologise for being you. And if brains is you, then who cares what other people think? Hermione didn't and she is awesome. And you know what, so are you." Ginny hugged her niece. "I'll see you in the morning."

Ginny slipped quietly into the separate compartment within the tent which was big enough to a small double bed, and slept.

Scorpius heard the zip of Ginny's separate compartment close. His eyes flew open and he sat up to look around. He closed his book quietly and held it close. He scanned each bed. Everyone seemed to be asleep. Grabbing his wand, tiptoed out of his bed, light a candle and softly moved towards the canvass door. He didn't notice the tiny blue light

Rose was sitting about a metre away from the tent, clutching her bluebell flame inside the jar. It felt like a tiny piece of home as her mum liked to keep them lit them the hallway so that if anyone got up in the night, they would be able to see without waking others up with a light of their own.

Scorpius stopped short as he saw Rose. She didn't see him at first. She was looking up, her crazy red mass of hair moved gently in the breeze. He couldn't help but stare for a moment.

"Oh, Scorpius!" Rose gasped when she heard someone behind her and suddenly turned. "I thought everyone was asleep."

"So did I." He sat himself beside Rose, leaving a good gap between them.

Rose laughed quietly when she saw the candle stick, "Scorpius, come on. You must have known that the breeze would blow out the candle."

Scorpius shrugged at the candle as twirls of smoke curled off of it. It must have gone out as soon as he left the tent. He looked at the blue light in the jar in excitement and awe. "Is that a bluebell flame?!"

Rose had never seen his eyes so wide. She handed to slightly warm jar to him for inspection. "My mum taught me."

"This is amazing Rose." Scorpius breathed.

Rose suddenly realised the gap between them and frowned. Scorpius gave back the jar and she wedged it into the sand in front of them, crossed her legs and shuffled closer to him for warmth.

She stared at the stars.

He stared at her. She noticed and gave him a confused look.

"Oh, umm, what are you reading?" he shook his head.

"'If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it does.' "

Scorpius looked at Rose sceptically

"That's a quote from the book, 'Alice in Wonderland' by Lewis Caroll. My grandma and my mum used to read it to us when we were kids."

"Missing your grandma?"

"Yeah, this is usually the week we would visit." Rose sighed

After a moments silence, Rose remembered that she was mad at Scorpius. She turned to face him full on and scowled.

"So, you have a house elf."

"My grandparents have a house elf."

"That was a gift to your parents." Rose growled, she was sitting on her knees now, staring down Scorpius as he still sat cross legged. "I can't believe you, I thought you cared about magical creatures!" She raised her voice but it was still only a harsh whisper.

"I do care!" Scorpius sat up to match her level. "It's just that it would be rude-"

"Oh yes, we wouldn't want Scorpius's reputation for impeccable manners get in the way of the freedom and rights of an innocent creature!" Rose finally stood, accidentally lop-siding the jar. Luckily it was wedged into the sand enough that it didn't break or roll away.

Scorpius didn't speak. He knew Rose was right. But he also knew that she could never understand the immense feeling of pressure that he and his parents felt from his grandparents. Yes they loved each other, but that atmosphere in the house was usually so tense between generations.

"Rose-"

"No, Scorpius." Rose sighed. "Sorry, maybe this was the wrong time to bring this up. Now I have to spend three more days with you, knowing that you're not who I thought you were." She grabbed her book and turned to walk back to the tent. "I have to know," she stopped to talk once more, "all those times in class, all those long talks about Fwoopers, were they all just a way to get back at your grandparents? I mean, you can't do it face to face, you can't free a poor elf because you're afraid of them. So you chose subjects that would annoy them."

Scorpius couldn't look Rose in the eye. He stared down at the bluebell flame in the jar. He had thought himself that the only reason he chose muggle studies and care of magical creatures was to get back at his grandparents, but he had come the the conclusion within the first week of choosing these subjects, that he had chosen them because he enjoyed them. He wasn't trying to impress anyone or rebel. He was just trying to be Scorpius.

"I'm going to bed. Maybe by the time we get back to school I'll have forgotten about this and we can get along."

"You know that won't work Rose. The thing about our friendship is that if we don't sort something out quickly, it grows into a problem that neither of us can tackle." Scorpius managed to catch her hand as she was about to turn around again. He blushed and dropped it. "This is obviously something you care about deeply." Returned around and watched the peaceful sea in the distance between thin line of trees. "And it's something I've been thinking about for years. I like Petit, but she deserves to be free."

Rose felt a twinge of hope amongst the guilt of accusing him so quickly. Rose could see the sudden longing and determination in his eyes as he stood to look at her.

"I decided a while ago, and I never told anyone, that," he took a deep breath "when I move out, I'm going to free her. I don't care if it offends my grandparents. But I can't now. To my grandfather, having a house elf shows wealth and the stability of tradition." He looked Rose in the eyes. "You have to know that they're not bad people, it's just that they love my family so much that they would do anything, since the second rise of Voldemort they have learnt to fight for family. They lost all belief in a pure blood society, which is great, but they don't have anything to believe in but each other and rely on my dad to uphold their traditions. I think they feel useless, especially since my parents are now in charge of the house."

"Scorpius, I'm sorry for being so quick to judge, you know how hot headed I can be."

He smiled in agreement as he picked up the jar. "When we get back to school, you need to teach me how to do these." He grabbed Rose's hand and she led them quietly back into the tent.

"Sorry again." Rose whispered as they drew closer to the bunk beds.

"Is hot headed Miss Weasley is apologising?" Scorpius's eyebrows arose in mockery.

"Is serious Mr Malfoy is making a sarcastic comment?" She retorted with a grin. "Goodnight." Rose patted him on the shoulder and slipped into bed.

Scorpius slid his book on to the table and hopped into bed still holding the jar. He propped it up so it leant against his pillow. It's warmth and dim lighting sent him to sleep within a few minutes.

 **SATURDAY, LUNCH TIME**

Lily, Hugo and Rose had gone with Ginny in search of sandwiches while Albus and Scorpius stayed by the tent.

Scorpius sat cross legged infant of the zipped door, reading his book. The line line of trees between him and the beach allowed the light to flutter in and dance across the page. A few meters in front, Albus was laying on the sand in the sun, just in front of the trees. He sat up and watched his friend.

"You're quite relaxed." Albus called over to him.

Scorpius did not look up from his book but shrugged.

"I thought you'd be freaking out more about exam results. They're coming in less than a week."

Scorpius closed his book and looked up at Albus. He could see that his friend was obviously nervous. "I'm not too worried, I've come to terms with the mild anxiety. I know that I couldn't have done any more than I did." Scorpius squinted at Albus. "You seem quite calm too."

"Yeah, I'm just a bit worried. But, you know what? I wish I hadn't brought it up."

"Not talking about it makes you forget and then you're able to enjoy yourself, huh?"

Albus smiled. "Hey, I think we've got wizarding chess packed. Want to play while we wait."

"Sure, but be prepared to lose."

Albus laughed. "Remember, I'm related to Ron Weasley, one of the best players of wizarding chess that Hogwarts has ever seen. I'm always prepared to lose." He turned to go into the tent with Scorpius following closely behind. "Oh, and just a heads up, never ever play this game with Hugo or Rose. They'd crush you."

The next few days went past with a blast. And no one mentioned exams again. On the Sunday, a fun fair had arrived in the town just by the beach and so they spent their time divided between sandcastle competitions, swimming races, rollercoaster rides and water fights. Scorpius had never had so much fun. Thats why he was sad to leave on the Monday. Ginny was helping Lily find her wand outside amongst the fallen twigs of the forest floor, while the rest were packing their things.

"Albus, are you sure you're alright coming for dinner in two weeks? My grandfather might be a bit, you know." Scorpius spoke quietly.

"Yeah, we'll have fun! Besides, I'll be the perfect angel I always am and he'll have nothing to complain about." Albus smirked.

"Oh, perfect Albus? Impossible, no such thing exists. Don't be fooled Scorpius." James jumped down from his bunk with a thump, landing on Albus. James didn't loose his balance for a second and simply strutted off into the kitchen area to grab his wand. Albus had fallen hard on the floor and accidentally knocked his open suitcase over so it spilled everywhere.

Hugo chuckled as he and Scorpius helped a groaning Albus stand up.

"So you're meeting up with Albus, when are we gonna next see you Scorpius?" Hugo asked and Rose listened in near them.

"Diagon Alley I guess, we'll go around Uncle George's shop together. Sounds fun, doesn't it Rose?" Albus answered for his friend then spun around to address his cousin. Both he and Scorpius were staring at her.

Rose paused as she was folding a t-shirt then sighed as she flopped it in her suitcase. "For you guys yeah, but I promised Felix that I'd meet him while we're at Diagon Alley."

"You're waiting until the end of summer for your date? Merlin, how awkward is that kid?" James scoffed as he strutted back to his bunk to continue packing. "I mean, why is he putting it off for so long?"

"Maybe he's building up the courage to spend time with that load of hair and the scary fireball of a girl attached to it." Albus smirked and nodded is head indicating to Rose's uncontrollable mass of hair.

"Maybe it takes him all summer to find the perfect outfit." Hugo giggled

"Or maybe it takes the whole summer to find a new personality." James laughed along with Albus and Hugo. Scorpius had turned around to continue packing. The boys stopped short when they noticed the daggers in Rose's eyes pointing at them.

"Oh come on Rose, it's just a joke." James uncomfortably busied himself, trying to avoid eye contact with Rose.

"You have to admit, he's not really anything like you. Plus, I'm pretty sure he knows nothing real about your personality." Albus defended James.

"Yeah, he's shy, he has no confidence, he's not very smart, he's a bit too chirpy and he thinks you're an angel." James said. "Look, all we're trying to say is, you can't be very serious about him." James sat on the bed next to Rose. "Rosie, that guy is nothing like you and doesn't deserve you"

'Yeah, absolutely, wholeheartedly agree with that. No one deserves Rose' Scorpius shoved that thought out of his mind before he spoke it out loud.

Rose slammed her suitcase shut, almost catching James' hand in it. Then said in a huff "Well I thank you for you 'expertise' but I think I know what I'm doing. And I know I can handle myself without any of you." She picked up her suitcase and began to storm out of the tent to where Ginny had been stacking all the suitcases. Rose turned around to face their subdued faces. "And if you must know, I'm going out with him next week, just the two of us. It didn't take him very long to ask me out. And meeting up at Diagon Alley, alone, while our families shop for school stuff, was a charming and friendly idea he had." They could see the flames in her eyes grow as she almost growled, "Believe it or not, some people actually like me enough to go out with me! I'm sorry that's so hard for you to believe." And with that she threw her suitcase on the pile and stormed out.

Ginny walked in looking shocked and concerned at seeing Rose's fuming face. she then turned to the boys, each one looking as guilty and remorseful as the next.

"What did you do?" Ginny asked knowingly.

Lily scowled at her brothers then ran off to catch up with Rose.

"Nothing." Albus shrugged as he untruthfully answered his mother.

Ginny decided to let it go as she was busy trying to organise and clean the tent. Finally they were all ready to leave. Lugging their suitcases through the town granted them a few weird looks from the local muggles but they all just ignored them. Rose ignored everyone except Lily and Ginny.

"Ah! Mrs Potter, lovely to see you and your family again." Mr Fugal greeted the group with a wide grin as they walked into his antique shop. "Are you going home now?"

Ginny and Mr Fugal chatted away while Rose and Lily decided to look around at the antiques. The boys did not speak to one another, each was just as ashamed as the next for being so mean to Rose. They all knew that she had enough of it from the people at Hogwarts, she didn't need her own family making fun of her too.

Scorpius had not said anything to upset Rose, yet he did not defend her. Something which he knew Rose had picked up on. However, he couldn't help but feel a little chuffed at the fact that he wasn't the only one who disliked the idea of Rose dating Felix Stirling. Although Scorpius guessed that the reason why he didn't like it was very different from the reasons why her brother and cousins didn't like it.

"Now then," Mr Fugal son clapped his hands together and watched closely as the only muggle customer in the shop left. "If you'll all follow me, we can get you lot home."

Rose and Lily were the first to follow Mr Fugal into the back room.

Mr Fugal was a very old wizard and opted to live amongst muggles as his wife was a muggle. He had been Ginny's old boss at the Daily Profit when she first became their Qudditch correspondent. When Mrs Fugal's father died, the couple decided to run his old antique shop as tribute to him.

The back room was more of a sitting room on one half and on the other it was a storage room full of stacks of boxes. This was because the fireplace, which was usually at the centre of a room, was in fact closer to the left hand wall. So by filling up the right hand side with boxes, they seemed like two different rooms.

Mr Fugal reach out and snatched a small pot from on top of the fireplace, he then reached inside the pot and took out three items. A smaller pot, a bunch of keys and box of mints, he shared around the mints. Then Mr Fugal took the smaller pot and reached in, his hand completely disappeared. Lilly looked confused.

"Undetectable extension charm." Mr Fugal explained with a wink as he pulled out a handful of floo powder.

"Rose and Hugo," The two Weasley's looked at their aunt. "Go on straight to the Burrow, I meant to tell you earlier that your parents are there visiting."

They nodded.

Scorpius watched as each person disappeared into green smoke one by one. Hugo, Lily and James had already gone. Now it was Rose's turn. She looked at him as she took some floo powder, she made no attempt to say goodbye or even smile.

Scorpius wouldn't see her or contact her until September when school started.


	4. Chapter 4 FOURTH YEAR

**FOURTH YEAR. 22 YEARS LATER**

 **DIAGON ALLEY, TWO DAYS BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS**

"Potter." Draco Malfoy nodded to Albus as they walked past each other in Flourish and Blotts.

"Hi." Albus greeted back with a smile. To be honest, Scorpius's dad scared him. As soon as Draco was out of earshot Albus sighed with relief only to be startled by Scorpius's sudden tap on the shoulder. "Merlin's beard you made me jump!"

Scorpius just smiled.

"Wanna walk around outside for a bit?" Albus suggested as the shop became busier and he could see Scorpius's dad coming closer, he did not want another awkward encounter.

"Sure."

The two friends exited the book shop, and what they saw across the street didn't exactly thrill them. Rose was sitting in Florean Fortescue, the ice-cream shop, with Felix Stirling. She was smiling while he talked and talked and talked.

Lily ran past the window but stopped to wave at Rose, who waved enthusiastically back. Hugo was trailing behind Lily and just nodded, not wanting to interfere with his sister's date.

"Albus! Scorpius!" A loud voice cheerfully shouted at them from behind.

Both boys quickly spun to see Albus's cousin Molly, who had finished at Hogwarts but had decided to spend the day with her family, charging up to them. "Hey guys!" she pulled them in for a group hug. "Come on Lucy! Greet your cousin and our friend!"

Her sister Lucy who was now in her sixth year in Ravenclaw came slowly up behind her. "I haven't seen you in a while Albus." Lucy smiled and gave him a quick side hug. She nodded at Scorpius and politely asked how his summer was. Lucy was very smart and slightly boring. She was like a stricter version of her father, Percy Weasley. And the exact opposite to her loud and very friendly older sister.

"Molly, are you still dating Merlin?" Albus asked, genuinely interested in his cousin.

"Oh, well, he's great Albus." Molly didn't seem convinced.

"And what do the parents think of him?"

"I actually think Uncle George is more excited that I'm dating Merlin Jordan. Dad and Merlin get along fine, mum really likes him." Molly didn't seem to be as enthusiastic as before

"And what does Lucy think?" Albus directed this question to Lucy herself.

"I think he's very loud, he never stops laughing, he's overly friendly" Lucy sounded as if she was criticising him "and, well, perfect for my sister." she finished with a smile.

Albus saw his Uncle Percy making his way towards his daughters so Albus left Scorpius's side to go and greet him. Molly and Lucy rushed off too, in Molly's case it was because she saw Merlin and quickly walked in the other direction, in Lucy's case she wanted to buy more books. Scorpius was left alone and couldn't help but turn and watch Rose on her date. They were now coming out of Florean Fortescue and as Rose spotted Scorpius, they made their way towards him.

"Hi Malfoy! I just wanted to say hi, I know you're a friend of Rose's so I thought it best not to ignore you, even though we are on a date." Felix said very enthusiastically then looked at Rose expectantly.

"Oh, hi Scorpius." Rose lifted one hand in a sort of wave as she smiled, although the smile wasn't forced.

"Ooh! I just saw my friend Finley Norwood, I need to go and say hi." Felix rushed out quickly and left Rose with Scorpius.

"How was the rest of your summer?" Rose asked.

Scorpius shrugged. "It was ok, I spent more time with Albus than usual which is nice. Hugo actually came to visit much of the time I was there, we started to get along really well."

Rose grinned. "Yeah, he said. He really likes you, I think he's heard a lot about your quidditch skills from Albus and kind of looks up to you. Are you going to tryout this year?"

"Maybe next year." Scorpius looked over Rose's shoulder and saw Felix practically buzzing on his feet as he greeted many of his Hufflepuff friends. Rose turned to see what he was looking at. "Really Rose? Him? He's a bit springy for you isn't he?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rose frowned.

"He's very excitable. Won't you eventually find that annoying?"

"What? Scorpius!" Rose lightly hit his arm. "I thought that if there's one person who won't criticise my relationship with Felix, it was going to be you." Rose sighed. "The truth is, I like him. Yeah he's a bit cheerful but I guess I like that. My family don't really like him and I was counting on you to not hate on him, at least not out loud and to my face."

Scorpius shrugged. "I can try and be supportive, but I think you can do better."

Rose rolled her eyes. "You know what? I'll talk to you later." she did not sound pleased with him. "Felix was going to take me to Cranville Quincy's Magical junk shop."

Scorpius made a face.

"What? The owner is his grandfather." Rose rolled her eyes again and walked off to find Felix.

Scorpius saw her near the group which surrounded Felix, Finley Norwood was there and he shot Rose an angry look. Rose had made him fall, get covered in mud and changed is hair to lime green, (along with his friend Daniel Leyton who was in Ravenclaw,) just last year. Finley had also fallen asleep in history class in their first year so Rose made random objects fly around his head, eventually the entire class joined in, and only then did Professor Binns notice the sleeping student. Once Binns shouted at Finley to wake up, all the objects hovering around him fell on Finley's head. It was safe to assume he hated Rose.

Albus, Lily, James, Roxanne, Fred, Dominique, Hugo and some young blonde kid Scorpius didn't know, suddenly appeared around him. They were all watching Rose and Felix walking towards the junk shop. Felix was very bouncy whereas Rose had her arms folded and was walking at a brisk pace. But she was still smiling.

"How's Rose doing on her date?" Roxanne asked nosily.

Scorpius shrugged.

"Well, she seems to like him." Fred said.

"Please, it's her first boyfriend." James scoffed. "Everyone thinks they like their first relationship at the beginning. Then it all goes down hill within a few weeks."

"A few weeks?! You think they'll last that long?" Hugo seemed slightly alarmed.

"It's her first boyfriend-" Lily spoke up. She was interrupted by James.

"Just said that Lils, keep up."

Lilly gave a short huff. "Let me finish bogey breath." she gave James a small shove. "It's her first boyfriend, we should leave her alone."

"I agree with Lily." Dominique wrapped an arm around Lilly. "Besides, I see Stirling a lot around the Hufflepuff common room. He's really nice, Rose picked a pretty good guy as her first boyfriend."

James scoffed. "You would say that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dominique stood straighter defensively.

"I get it." Fred nodded at James in understanding. "Your such a Hufflepuff. Loyal to your cousin's privacy and to your fellow housemates."

"That's not a bad thing."

Fred shrugged. "Never said it was."

"Is it bad to be in Hufflepuff?" the young blonde boy held on to Dominique's arm.

"Of course not Louis." Dominique looked proud. "Hufflepuffs are fiercely loyal. And I mean fierce. You don't ever want to mess with a Hufflepuff."

Louis looked back and forth between all his cousins. They were all nodding. Although they were all, except Albus, Lucy and Dominique, in Gryffindor, they knew not to anger a Hufflepuff. But it was still ok to make jokes, Hufflepuffs are cool like that.

"Actually, that guy Rose covered in mud and turned his hair green last year is in Hufflepuff and I hate him." Roxanne said.

"Oh, Finley Norwid or Norwood, he's a bit bitter about being put in Hufflepuff and so he's pretty much moody all the time." Dominique had to agree that there were some exceptions to the general rule that Hufflepuffs were cool.

"Oh, hi, I'm Louis." The young blonde kid stuck out his hand for Scorpius to shake. "I'm Dominique and Victoire's little brother. This is my first time going to Hogwarts."

Scorpius smiled and nodded. "Scorpius Malfoy, fourth year Slytherin." he introduced himself.

"Oh! You're Albus's friend! Hi." Louis beamed up.

Albus lazily rested his elbow on Scorpius's shoulder. "This here is my best mate. Be nice." Albus mockingly warned his cousin.

Fred let out a small laugh. "Can you ever imagine Louis not being nice?"

They all shook their heads.

"So anyway, back to Rose's first date." Roxanne interrupted the nice family moment.

"What about it?" Dominique asked.

Roxanne shrugged. "I thought we weren't finished talking about it. Ooh! You're going to have to be our eyes and ears Dom."

"What? Why?" Dominique was slightly outraged

"You're the only one in Hufflepuff, we need to keep an eye on Stirling." Fred understood where his sister was coming from.

"Nosey Gryffindors." Dominique mumbled. She new that there would be nothing to report on Felix as he was genuinely a nice guy but she decided to agree with them for Rose and for lack of argument. A thought suddenly occurred to her. "Does this mean that Felix will be her first kiss?"

"Nosey Hufflepuff." James mumbled mockingly only loud enough for Dominique to hear, she rolled her eyes at him.

"Well, ask Lily." Fred shrugged.

"What?" Lily suddenly looked away from Rose and Felix who disappeared into the junk shop

"Rose tells you everything right?" Albus looked at her knowingly.

Lilly nodded.

"Is Stirling going to be Rose's first kiss?" Roxanne asked excitedly and flicked her short black hair.

"Guys, she's our cousin! Lets give her some privacy." was all Lily said in reply.

Scorpius couldn't look at any of them. He stared at his feet thinking about his and Rose's first kiss back in their second year.

The group of cousins dropped the subject as George and Angelina came looking for Fred and Roxanne, then Fluer and Bill came to get Dominique some new books and Louis his robes. Each of them greeted their nieces and nephews as they left to continue shopping.

"It's weird that we're all here at the same time." Hugo suspiciously remarked.

Hugo, Lily, James, Albus and Scorpius were walking towards the ice-cream parlour.

"No it's not." James rolled his eyes.

"Hugo, you idiot, you were there when Uncle George and grandma planned it!" Lily gave an exasperated sigh. "Remember? We're all meeting up, after we go shopping, in the Leaky Cauldron."

"Oh, yeah." Hugo laughed at himself.

"Hugo! Where have you been?! Young man I told you not to go running off, we need to buy you new robes." Hermione crossly shouted across the street as she charged out of Quality Quiddich Supplies.

Scorpius was confused as to why she was in there, as far as he knew Hugo and Rose didn't play quidditch.

"But mum," Hugo complained as he met her in the middle of the street. "I hate buying robes! That old lady always pinches my cheeks."

Lily, Albus and James chuckled behind Hugo.

"It doesn't matter. You're growing very quickly and so you need new robes."

"Bye guys." Hugo sighed as his mother dragged him off.

"Hey Lils, you never answered whether or not Felix will be Rose's first kiss." James smirked.

Scorpius's head snapped to the left so that he could look anywhere but at the other three.

James neglected to notice his parents standing behind him.

"I don't think that is anyones business but her own." Harry said dryly. Then he looked up and smiled at Lily. He had saved her from answering.

Lily looked at Scorpius but didn't say anything. She noticed he had looked away both times she was asked this question. Scorpius couldn't work out if Lily only suspected him or if Rose had actually told her.

"Nice to see you again Scorpius." Ginny called back as she and her family walked away. The family were so busy that they had forgotten to greet him properly until after they left his side.

"Save a seat on the train!" Albus shouted at Scorpius.

Draco suddenly appeared at Scorpius's side. "We need to leave soon."

Scorpius peered around his father to see his mother.

"Your grandfather was in a mood when we left, I'm worried for Petit." Astoria checked her watch twice.

 **TRAIN TO HOGWARTS**

Scorpius was trying to find Albus on the train when Lloyd Parkinson ran straight into him.

"Well well well. If it isn't Malfoy."

Scorpius sighed.

"So I heard Weasel is dating some Hufflepuff."

Scorpius smirked. "What's it to you?"

"I guess that means you're out. She'll no longer have time for you."

"Shut up Parkinson, he's just her first boyfriend." Scorpius regretted his words straight away. "Get out of my way." He tried to leave.

Lloyd laughed "My, my. This is interesting. You really hate her having a boyfriend don't you? Wow, I am loving this. You know, if the happy couple ever really annoy you, there are plenty of Slytherins you could hang out with. Those of us who are not, how shall I say, below your status."

Scorpius just gritted his teeth and shoved past Lloyd. He was more annoyed that Lloyd's stirring had got to him.

Lloyd just laughed as Scorpius stormed off to find Albus.

Meanwhile Rose sat in a compartment with Felix and his twin sister, Robin Stirling who was in Ravenclaw. Robin didn't particularly like Rose as she was close with Finley Norwood.

"You know, Finley normally sits with us on the train. But he refused to be in the same compartment as you." Robin stirred

Rose had to do everything in her power not to roll her eyes.

"Oh, Finley's just in a weird mood right now. He'll be back to normal and be good friends with Rose in no time!" Felix seemed to be in denial that Rose an Finley would never get over the incident last year.

Robin, seeing that her first attempt to make Rose look bad failed, had another go. "Your hair looks pretty Rose," her voice was too sickly sweet, her snarling was picked up on straight away by Rose. Felix on the other hand thought his sister was being lovely. "It looks like an orange bush." Robin gave a small laugh. "Twigs and all."

Robin then stared smugly out the window as Rose indeed found three twigs stuck in the back of her hair. Rose had been sitting outside reading before they had left for the station.

"Hey, now your going out with Rose," Robin feigned enthusiasm. "We can work together in class!" Felix lit up in excitement, thrilled to see his sister liking Rose even if it he didn't realise she was making her sarcasm too obvious. "Yeah, she'll come in handy when I forget my text books, I'll just get her to start talking and the whole bloody boring book will come flooding out for everyone to hear."

Rose distracted herself by standing as she felt herself wanting to reach for her wand and hex Robin. Rose new she needed to get out so she muttered some excuse about finding Lily. Once out of the compartment Rose realised she didn't really have anywhere to go so she actually did what she had said, she went in search of Lily.

She was quickly moving down the corridor, taking quick glances into compartments. She saw Lloyd Parkinson sulking around his friends as she went past him, she saw Roxanne with a bunch of her friends, she saw the girls from her dormitory (of which only Phil waved enthusiastically back) and she saw Mae Blinston with her friends flicking her hair a flirting with some blonde guy…

Rose stopped.

She took a few steps back and took a proper look through the compartment window.

Scorpius had been dragged from the corridor, on his way to find Albus, by Mae Blinston. Once sat down with her, she and her friends giggled and gossiped while he sat awkwardly staring out the window. Mae started flicking her hair, which annoyed him but he decided to ignore because they were friends. It was a shock when Rose appeared in the window, he knew she hated Mae. He knew Mae and her friends were horrible to Rose, but it wasn't like he could escape them. The group of girls were in his year and in his house, he practically had every lesson with them! And saw them all the time in the common room. Scorpius thought it best to get along with housemates, even if it meant ignoring their constant bullying of a friend.

Rose took a deep breath and sent Scorpius a death look. Scorpius pretended as though he hand't seen Rose.

Mae and her friends giggled at Rose. When the ginger stormed off, Mae leaned and said to her friends.

"I guess I can feel sorry for the ugly nerd," she sighed insincerely. "14 years old and still looking like that. I mean if my hair was that disfigured, I'd do the decent thing and hide it under a paper bag so no one has to look at it." the blonde flicked her hair again.

Scorpius stood and left without an explanation to Mae and her friends. Scorpius had to find Albus and tell him that Rose probably wouldn't be speaking to him for the next week as she caught him being friends with an arch-enemy.

 **SECOND WEEK OF SCHOOL**

Louis had been put in Hufflepuff with his sister Dominique which pleased him very much. But you could always see Louis in the Gryffindor common room as he had made good friends with some Gryffindors in his year and he always loved seeing James and Lorcan plan their next funny prank.

Rose and Felix had been going out for three weeks which shocked many people as they seemed complete opposites. Rose was smart and always had her hand up in class to answer questions. Felix stayed quiet in class so not to draw attention to his lack of understanding. Rose loved to read in her spare time. Felix loved to talk. Rose hated mornings. Felix always woke up early and asked any Gryffindor he could find that was also up, to knock on Rose's door and ask her to come and see him. Something which never thrilled Rose, whereas Felix thought he was being romantic. Rose didn't like spending too much time with Felix as she loved quiet time to herself. Felix never wanted to be away from Rose and loved holding hands. When someone made fun of Rose she hexed them or shouted insults back. When someone made fun of Felix he tried to be more positive and friendly to that person, that's how he originally became friends with Finley Norwood. But no one made fun of Felix anymore as they were met with the angry eyes of Rose Weasley and it was best not to cross her unless you wanted your bag to start attacking you or your hair to turn green with white spots.

Rose wasn't a bully, but she was short tempered. If someone was bored, and it was usually Finley Norwood, they would wind up Rose. Rose usually only hexed someone if they were annoying her or being mean to others.

Rose saw these differences and thought them a good thing, at first. Felix denied any differences and insisted Rose was perfect. Such a high opinion freaked Rose out a bit, she knew she wasn't perfect and so was afraid of doing something that destroyed Felix's image of her.

Albus and Scorpius were walking out of their muggle studies lesson when they were suddenly pulled into an empty corridor.

"Woah, whats going on?" Albus was disorientated. He turned around and smiled. "Rose? What's with all the sneaking around?"

"I kind of miss hanging around with you guys." Rose answered truthfully

"Felix driving you crazy?" asked Albus

"No, well, kind of. I really like him but he always wants us to hang out together or with his friends. Plus, he's always complementing me." Rose slumped to the floor.

Albus chuckled. "Really?"

"Yeah, apparently I have nice nostrils. Did you know that?"

Scorpius and Albus shrugged at each other and joined her on the floor. They had all jus finished their last lesson of the day and had an hour before dinner.

"Why are you still with him Rose? He's your first boyfriend, no one really expected you guys to last this long." said Scorpius.

Rose scowled and Albus elbowed him in the stomach.

"I don't care what other people expect. I like Felix, and I've tried setting up ground rules like I want to be left alone for at least an hour everyday but every time he speaks, all he ends up saying is a compliment. And he's so nice, I don't know if saying I want to be away from him briefly, will hurt him. I mean, have you ever seen him sad?"

"Actually, no I haven't. Wow, that kid is cheerful enough to even rival Hugo." Albus smiled.

"Anyway, lets not talk about me. I want to hang out with you guys. So what's been going on?"

"Not much, Mae is being super friendly to Scorpius." Albus replied. Rose rolled her eyes.

"Rose, you know that muggle children's book you were reading?" Scorpius changed the subject.

"Yeah, 'Alice in Wonderland.' "

"I was doing some research on it, then we were talking about muggle literature in class today, and I was wondering if I could borrow it sometime?"

"Sure! You're going to love it! I'll ask mum to send it in the post."

"Thanks."

Albus realised that they were still sitting in the middle of a corridor

"Wait, Rose, you want us to hang out in a corridor?" Albus raised his eyebrows.

"Well I saw Felix was the first to leave your muggle studies class, he's probably out looking for me now and he's not going to look for me back here, so I won't see him until after dinner!" Rose said smugly, proud of her plan.

"You're going through all this trouble to get away from him? Rose, if he's that clingy, he doesn't deserve you." Scorpius tried to sound comforting but instead he just sounded mean.

"Oh shut up Scorpius." Rose rolled her eyes. "I actually think he's too nice and I don't deserve him."

"Well, your opinion is wrong." Scorpius stood up and looked down at Rose.

She stood to match his eye level. "So my opinion doesn't matter? You know what, your opinion doesn't matter. He's my boyfriend, so stay out of it."

"I'm not saying your opinion doesn't matter, I'm just saying it's wrong. I'm your friend, I'm trying to make you see that Felix is a mistake."

"A friend would let me make this, so called mistake, because they would understand that I really like Felix." Rose took a step forward.

"Albus, back me up and tell her that Felix is wrong for her."

"Albus, tell Scorpius to stay out of my personal life."

They both looked at Albus expectantly. He was still sitting on the floor.

Albus gave an awkward look to the both of them and shrugged. "I'm staying out of this."

Rose stared at Scorpius angrily, then huffed. "I'm going to find Lily. If I'm lucky I can get to the common room without running into Felix and Lily can keep everyone away from me while I sit and read."

Unluckily Felix did find her. He was waiting right outside the Gryffindor Common room door. The fat lady portrait was glaring at him. The fat lady was the first to speak to Rose.

"Young lady, I don't like this thing drooping around. Get rid of it." She made a shooing motion at Felix, who only laughed.

"She's been like that the whole time. She's a real character."

The fat lady huffed and stormed off into another painting. Rose could not get into the common room without the fat lady at her portrait. She was now stuck with Felix.

"How are you?" Felix asked. "I missed you."

Rose let out an uncomfortable laugh. "I'm fine."

"I'm glad that you're fine. You're so wonderful Rose that you deserve to be more than feeling fine. Tell me about your day!"

"My whole day?" Rose grimaced.

"Absolutely!"

"Well, how about another time? Right now I think I want to go in and see my cousins."

Rose started scanning the nearby paintings in search of the fat lady.

"Alright, if you insist." Felix wouldn't stop smiling. It irritated Rose. "But you are the most kind, generous and caring person I know and you need to tell me how I can make your day."

'Leave me alone.' Rose thought but only grunted quietly out loud. She was still searching for the fat lady when Felix popped his head very close to hers, his chin just centimetres from her shoulder. It startled Rose and she instinctively moved to grab her wand but stopped herself halfway.

"Whatcha thinking?" Felix asked with a curious grin.

"That I hate it when people make me jump. It makes me want to hex them nastily." Rose grumbled. That was not reaction she was hoping for, Rose could only guess that she wanted to make herself seem bad so that Felix could find at least one flaw. "Oh dear, did I cross a line by thinking about hexing someone for practically no reason?"

"Yes you did. You crossed a line right into my heart. I'm not s huge fan of being startled either! Merlin, we have so much in common!" Felix held Rose's hand and she pulled away.

Then she spotted the fat lady who was back in her portrait. Rose practically sprinted to her and rushed the password in a whisper so Felix wouldn't hear. The fat lady understood and winked at Rose before opening the door.

"Rose, my angel!" Felix grabbed her hand gently again before she could rush into the common room. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. I'm just tired." Rose gave a fake yawn.

"I'll meet you here so we can walk down to dinner together."

"Actually, no. I'm tired, I'll just go straight to bed. I'll see you tomorrow." Rose said

Felix looked concerned. "Well, ok then. You get your beauty sleep, not that you need it, and I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning." He leant in and kissed her on the cheek.

Rose disappeared into the common room and Felix skipped off whistling. A ghost and a few people in the paintings shouted at him to be more quiet.

 **BEGINNING OF OCTOBER, HOGSMEADE TRIP**

"Felix, stop it."

"What? You just fit so perfectly-"

"Ugh, stop it with the whole 'perfect' thing."

"But you are. I wish you could see what I see. I've never been so happy in my life and it's all thanks to you."

"See! Look! You're doing it again. Stop grabbing my hand, I can walk without holding your hand."

"Oh sorry, I can't help it. You're so cute and sweet, I guess I just want to be with you all the time and the only way to do that is to hold your charmingly dainty hand."

Then a bitter growl was followed by silence.

This is all Albus and Scorpius heard from Rose and Felix behind them as they walked down to Hogsmeade.

Everyone was allowed to go to Hogsmeade slightly earlier in the day than usual as the teachers and care takers needed as many students as possible out of the castle so that they could clean up the mess that James and Lorcan had made with their latest prank. This time a large blue puddle, which seemed to be alive, was stuck outside the history of magic class. Rose personally believed, and most agreed, it was a portable swamp the two boys had charmed the colour blue, not that the school needed another swamp in the corridors, there was already one left by Rose's uncles, George and the deceased Fred, outside an old office which no one used anymore as it was simply too difficult to get to and from.

Albus looked at Scorpius with a concerned face, Scorpius muttered to him.

"She's not happy, why doesn't she break up with him?"

Albus didn't answer until they had lost Rose and Felix in Honeydukes. Albus was looking at a lollipop.

"You know why. Everyone is just waiting for them to break up, Rose hates doing what everyone expects. And Felix genuinely is happy with Rose, I think if we weren't so young he would propose to Rose so that he could spend forever calling her perfect and denying her flaws. Well, not flaws, but, you know, things that don't add up to his perfect image of her."

"The little things that make a person." Scorpius mumbled remembering what he had once said to Rose, that was the only time he could remember opening himself up and being his true self with Rose. "A proposal would effectively get Rose to dump him." Scorpius nodded.

"Yep. Maybe her saying 'no' to his proposal would be the first flaw of Rose's he ever saw."

"What proposal?" Lorca suddenly popped up behind Scorpius, James following immediately.

"Oh, nothing." Scorpius brushed them off.

"Have you guys seen Rose around?" Albus kind of changed the subject

"She was in the Three Broomsticks. She did not look happy." Lorcan answered.

"That Norwid kid was talking to her boyfriend, they were both ignoring her. And Stirling was trying to hold Rose's hand put she kept on snatching it away." James didn't sound interested but Albus knew that his brother was concerned for their cousin.

Rose managed to convince Felix to give her some space while she went to visit her uncle George in the Weasley shop. On her way, she ran into Scorpius. He looked as though he was deciding between buying an Weasley's Snowstorm, a snow-globe with a model Shrieking Shack inside and a metal spray pump on top that dispensed magical snow when pressed, or to buy a Weasley's Wet Whether, a tall glass jar with an umbrella-shaped lid that contained some type of enchantment that created artificial rain. Rose smiled a popped up behind him.

"I recommend the Weasley's Wet Whether. When people get drench in the artificial rain, they think that they are just imagining it for a moment, then they realise its real and panic. Then it's so funny because they can never find out where the water is coming from and end up thinking it's just a leaky roof." Rose chuckled. "I kept on using my one of Hugo and Dad all the time over the summer holidays."

"Yeah, thanks Rose." Scorpius muttered unenthusiastically as he refused to look at her.

Rose was confused. "What's up with you?"

Scorpius sighed. "I'm just not sure I trust your judgement right now." he shrugged, still not looking at Rose.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Rose demanded. A few students standing nearby looked to see who was speaking so loudly, upon realising it was Rose, they quickly looked away and moved on.

"It's just that your judgement has been a little off recently, especially in the relationships department."

She rolled her eyes and huffed, "Get over yourself Scorpius." Rose spun and charged in the direction of her Uncle's office for a visit.

 **MIDDLE OF OCTOBER**

Rose was leaving their care of Magical Creatures class in a hurry. She wanted to find a quiet place outside in the courtyard, as it wasn't too cold yet, to finish her potions essay then visit Hagrid. And she wanted to do all of this without running into Felix. If she was honest with herself, she was getting annoyed with his constant positivity and insistence that she could do no wrong, that she was perfect for him, that they should never be separated.

Finley shouted behind her. "If you don't like spending time with Felix, do us all a favour and dump him, Weasley! Let him see you for the monster you are!"

Rose stopped herself from retaliating with a hex and continued walking. Scorpius caught up with her.

"Oh, hey." She smiled.

"Hey. Why are you running off?"

"I want to do my homework without Felix trying to hug me."

"Potions essay?"

"Yep."

"Do you mind if your friend Scorpius sits with you to do it, I made two plans yesterday and I'm not sure which one to use."

Rose grinned up at him. "Scorpius, are you asking me for help?"

"Actually I lied, I figured me and Albus haven't spent time with you without arguing in a while."

Rose sighed. "Let me just ask Daniel if he can tell Albus where we are." She quickly moved to briefly speak to Daniel then came back to Scorpius's side.

"You're friends with Leyton now?" Scorpius was confused. Rose had covered in mud and change the hair colour of both Daniel Leyton and Finley Norwood in the previous year. Finley hated her ever since.

Rose shrugged. "Yeah, at the end of school last year he actually came up to me to apologise. He said that Finley was bored so he picked on me and Daniel felt like he had to join in 'cause Finley was making fun of him too."

"And you believed him?"

"Not everyone is bad Scorpius." Rose sat down on a bench but Scorpius remained standing.

"I guess, some people are good. In fact, some people are so nice that they can be smothering and clingy and that's when you know to dump them. Because they no longer make you happy." Scorpius was obviously talking about Felix. Rose stood, her fists clenched in frustration.

She groaned and rolled her eyes. "I know Scorpius! I know you don't like my boyfriend. But in the end, it's not up to you, is it?

"I'm just saying that he's not right for -" Scorpius calmly spoke.

"Oh, so you know what's best for me? And my opinion about my life doesn't matter?"

"I never said that." Scorpius almost snapped. "But, Rose, I know you."

"At least you know me." Rose muttered but Scorpius heard.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Scorpius almost raised his voice.

"Well, you seem to know me pretty well, but sometimes I feel like I hardly know you at all!" In her frustration Rose began to pace back and forth. "Albus knows you well, you tell him everything. You claim that I'm one of your best friends but I hardly know you! You're a closed book!"

And just like that every little thing that had mildly bothered Rose about Scorpius came flooding out into a full blown argument. His constant comments about her relationship; his criticisms of her friends; the fact that he barley shared anything about himself with Rose; his grandparents and the fact that they hated her and her family even though she had never met them in her life; the fact that he had a house elf; his relationship with Mae, the very girl who had mercilessly laughed at Rose behind her back since first year; and the fact that whenever he was with Mae, he completely ignored Rose.

Scorpius just stood there taking it all. The cool and collected Scorpius had gone for a brief hike leaving him only feeling anger and impatience at Rose's issues with him. For most of her accusations, he couldn't defend himself for. For the rest, he told himself that he had simply stopped caring about Rose's opinions of him.

"Look Rose, it's just hard to be your friend when you do stupid things like date that guy! And you know what? Maybe your opinion shouldn't matter if all it does is make you do stupid things and have a go at me." Scorpius was almost shouting, he had to to cut over Rose's own anger.

"You know what Malfoy," she spat with daggers in her eyes. "If it's so hard to be my friend, I guess I'll make it easier for you. " Rose walked away.

"Rose? What are you doing?"

"We're not friends anymore Malfoy. I can't stand you!" She shouted over her shoulder, quickly spun and sent a hex at him. "Colloshoo!"

Scorpius was left with his feet stuck to the ground. Albus arrived, quickly running around the corner, as Scorpius was trying different spells to unstick his shoes.

"Hey, I just saw Rose storm past me. She was mad. Any idea what's wrong-" Albus noticed Scorpius's shoes. "What happened to you?"

"Rose happened." Scorpius said through gritted teeth and finally freed his shoes.

"What did you do to her? What did you say?" Albus was almost shouting in defence of his cousin.

"What did I do?! Albus, she stuck my shoes to the ground!"

"You know she only hexes people if they provoke her."

"I might have criticised her boyfriend one too many times. Long story short, apparently we're no longer friends." Scorpius slumped on to the bench.

Albus sighed and joined him on the bench. "If my best friends are no longer friends and one of the just happens to also be my favourite cousin, you can't 'long story short' me. I need to know what's happened. Maybe I can fix this."

"Sorry, but I think this time it's beyond repair." Scorpius resigned himself. He told Albus the full story, about what he had said and about how everything Rose had a problem with was right and justified. He hadn't exactly been the best of friends to her.

After Scorpius had finished, Albus just sat staring at nothing in front. He took a long time to answer so Scorpius muttered 'Avis' and a flock of birds fluttered around them, following Scorpius's wand and he traced random shapes in the air.

"All I'm going to say is, be prepared for all my cousins and my siblings to take Rose's side."

"Will they hex and insult me?"

"I doubt it, you didn't target the family specifiably. They'll probably just ignore you."

"And you?" Scorpius was nervous

"You're still my best mate. Plus we share a dorm and you're, like, my only friend in Slytherin, so it would be inconvenient not to remain friends."

Scorpius had to smile at Albus's awkward choice of words. "Inconvenient'?" he asked. "Wow, you really know haw to keep someone around."

Albus gave a small chuckle. "Well, I've gotten used to you. You're not bad in my books, Rose will come around one day and remember what a good friend you are."

"I wasn't a good friend to her."

"True, but you are to me. And that counts for something." Albus patted Scorpius on the back. "We should get to dinner sticky shoes."

"Not a new nickname I hope."

Albus and Scorpius stood from the bench and slowly made their way to the hell. "Hmm, now I think about it, sticky shoes is a terrible nickname. I'll to think of another. Hey! Maybe next time Rose hexes you it will inspire a nickname!"

That night Scorpius did not sleep at all. He simply sat in his bed staring out the window until the sun came up. In the Gryffindor girl's dormitory, Phil and Mel saw something they had never witnessed before. Rose was crying her eyes out and refused to tell them why. Anna on the other hand pretended to be asleep. Rose had found new friends in Phil and Mel and she hoped to hold on to them for as long as possible.

 **END OF OCTOBER, ROSE'S BIRTHDAY**

Rose had had quite possibly the worst birthday of her life. The day started out nice as she opened presents from her family and friends. But as soon as she stepped out of the common room Felix was there, he was being extra clingy, Rose had to use a secret passageway that James had told her about once, just to get to class on time as Felix was not leaving her alone for a second.

It had been a week and a half since Rose and Scorpius had stopped being friends and now their screaming of insults, arguing and hexes were becoming a regular ordeal. Albus usually took a few steps back and let them at it. So Rose's birthday also had a brief argument with Scorpius included, just as they were lining up for potions class. Rose ended up with parchment following her around and Scorpius had horrible breath which could be smelt all over the castle whenever he opened his mouth. Rose's birthday continued with Mae Blinston openly laughing in her face and Finley Norwood insulting Rose to Felix's face. Rose tripped down a flight of stairs. Dropped all her books and as consequence lost her charms essay which was due in two hours. After she explained to the professor Rose was given an extension until the end of the day, she spent lunch rewriting the essay at the Gryffindor table while Felix insisted on holding her other hand. And on top of all that, she couldn't spend more that ten minutes with her best friend Albus as Scorpius stood glaring at them and Felix found Rose's new hiding spot.

The only thing that went right for her was her visit to Hagrid. Although she had no idea that her journey back to the castle after visiting Hagrid would reinforce the worst day ever feeling.

Rose managed to make Felix give her some space after dinner when she dropped off her barely finished on time re-wright essay to her charms professor. She took advantage of this alone time to go and see Hagrid. She felt bad as the rest of her family had visited him a few times but she had yet to visit the giant since term began.

Hagrid was as funny and loveable as ever. Rose hadn't had the chance to talk to Lily yet about her problems with Felix's clinginess. So she told Hagrid who didn't exactly say, but heavily implied, what everyone else had been saying. That Rose deserved someone who was more suited to her.

On her way back to the castle, Rose could see Felix waiting for her. And he could see her. There was no way out of it, she would have to talk to him. Rose found that even talking to Felix was irritating her recently as they never had a proper conversation, it was always just him sitting there complimenting her. She found it exhausting trying to keep up with all his high praise. Rose felt like she couldn't be herself infant of him for fear of breaking his illusion. He was too nice a guy and Rose didn't want to be the one to hurt him.

The sun was setting and she savoured the moment of silence before Felix joined her.

"Why hello there perfect girl." Felix came beaming over to Rose and instantly held her hand. "I was thinking, we could make us having a walk around the courtyard a birthday tradition every year for the two of us. Of course, we can't when we leave Hogwarts, unless of course we find a house with a courtyard in the back. But once we have a house, I guess a back garden will do fine for our little walks."

Rose didn't look enthusiastic but Felix ignored it. Rose never joined in when he talked about their possible future together or when he planned their ideal home. In fact, it freaked Rose out a bit but she never said anything in fear of hurting him.

"I'm sorry about Finley being mean about you earlier, and I saw Mae was being horrible too. And I'm sorry I couldn't wake you up early so that we could spend more time together, I would've been there but your cousin Dominique stopped me and talked with me for a while."

Rose smiled. She guessed the Dom had done it on purpose knowing that Rose would not have wanted to see Felix so early.

"Not that your cousin talking to me is a bad thing." Felix added quickly. "I bet you had to hang around with your cousins and those girls from your dorm. Sorry."

"I actually love hanging around with my cousins. And those girls from my dorm, they're my friends. I've liked going out with you, but I also like being away from you sometimes, we don't have to spend every waking hour together. I like having time to myself and I like having time alone with my friends." Rose said what she had been wanting to say ever since she came back to Hogwarts with the clingiest boyfriend imagined. "And while we're at it," Rose forcefully squeezed her hand out of Felix's grasp and pushed him away slightly as they walked. "I don't like holding hands this much."

"But," Felix seemed a little hurt and confused. "Well, I just assumed you would rather be with me, because I appreciate you more than anyone else and I know how special and perfect you are."

"That's another thing! I'm not perfect!"

"Yes you are." Felix's scoff seemed like he was patronising Rose. He gently stroked Rose's cheek which made her leap away from him. "You just don't see what I see. And you know what, there's something I've been dying to tell you!"

Rose felt like she knew what was coming.

"No." she muttered quickly to herself. Felix didn't hear her and continued in his ecstatic way.

"I"

"No."

"Love"

"No!"

"You!"

"Stop Felix! You've developed a mildly delusional obsession" Rose gritted through her teeth, she saw his disappointment and she continued calmly, "you've projected all these fantasies onto me, you're expecting a perfect person and I can't live up to that!" She sighed and lazily leaned against the ivy covered wall in the courtyard. "It's like, you've fallen in love with the idea of a person, not the actual person."

After a few minutes silence, where Felix tried to control himself so that he wouldn't cry, he turned to look at Rose, his eyes pooling. "But you are perfect, Rose. You just don't see it and I'm trying to help you. You're smart, kind, brave, charming and a load of other things too!"

Rose shook her head. "Nobody's perfect Felix. And I'm certainly not. I can be selfish, quick to judge, I have a short temper and little patience, I can hold a grudge. And I hurt people like you, not intentionally, but, look, you're one of the nicest people I've ever met and I've hurt you."

"So, this is a break up?" Felix sniffed.

"It has to be. You're very kind to see all the good qualities in me, but, Felix, to be in a working relationship, you can't ignore all the bad things about a person simply because they don't fit the perfect image of them that you've created in your head. I could never live up to that and you would've ended up disappointed in me and realise that you've wasted your time."

Felix gave a heavy sigh and stood. He stuck out his hand which Rose shook heartily.

"Well, I need to go to my dorm before I start crying in the middle of the courtyard."

Rose looked around to see that the courtyard was empty, but she knew that anyone could be hiding behind a pillar or come around the corner at any time and see them.

"Friends?" Rose asked as she still held on to Felix's hand.

He stroke her thumb with his. "Of course."

Rose patted his shoulder and quickly left just in case Felix had anything else to say. She went straight to the Gryffindor common room to find Lily and tell her what had just happened. The two girls sat talking on Rose's bed until Phil, Anna and Mel came up to go to bed.

Lily got off Rose's bed and said goodnight to the other three girls, before she left the room, she turned to look at Rose.

"Are you happy?"

"Very. I feel a sense of release, although I so still feel a bit guilty."

"You shouldn't, it's been a long time coming."

Rose sighed, "I know."

"Goodnight Rose, happy birthday."

"Thanks. Goodnight"

Lily left and Rose flopped on her bed.

"What's happened Rose?" Phil was concerned for her friend.

Rose looked at Anna who seemed bored and then at Mel who was trying not to seem too nosey.

"I broke up with Felix. But, I'll talk to you about it tomorrow Phil."

Anna rolled her eyes and went to bed. Mel gave Rose a small smile while Phil gave Rose a hug.

"I'm sorry you had to break up with him on your birthday Rose, but it was about time. It just didn't look like it fit."

"Your right." Rose slipped under her duvet. "That break up was long overdue."

Phil sat awake for a few hours while the rest of the girls slept. She thought back to the night that Rose had come back to the dorm crying because she lost Scorpius as a friend, Phil compared it to what had just happened. Rose had just broken up with her first boyfriend and had not shed a tear in front of anyone. Phil was very concerned for her friend, when Phil had broken up with Finley Norwood in her first year. Yeah they had only dated for a week, but he was her first boyfriend and she was very upset when he dumped her because he was bored of a relationship that no one noticed. Of course he didn't say those words exactly, he actually came up with some lame excuse, but Phil knew the real reason.

 **DECEMBER**

It had been two months since Rose and Scorpius stopped being friends. Their constant arguments and hex attacks were no longer entertaining to students passing by as they happened nearly everyday, in fact it became so regular that the teachers stopped punishing them both after the first few weeks. Most of the teachers simply ignored the arguing unless they were too loud or a hex or jinx got too close to another student. Although their hexes and jinxes were always on point, they were both very skilled for such a young age.

It was usual to see Scorpius walking happily with Mae Blinston or with Albus, then Rose with Phil and Mel quite happily chatting away to each other. Then suddenly. BAM. An argument would break out between the tall blonde and the messy red head simply because one got in the way or the other loudly mumbled an insult.

Sometimes someone else would try to join in, such as Finley Norwood, who disliked both of them. Rose and Scorpius would be screaming at one another and Finley would shout something at both of them. There would be silence as Rose and Scorpius glared at him, they would call him Norwid, he would get angry and insist his name was Norwood, he would be jinxed by both at the same time. Then they would continue arguing. This happened on multiple occasions, Finley simply didn't understand they Rose and Scorpius simply couldn't care less that he hated them. Once he even had to spend two days in the hospital wing as he had been hit by two tickling spells at the same time and wouldn't stop laughing.

Felix Stirling also tried to come to Rose's defence every now and then. Which Scorpius found hilarious and would make fun of her even more. Eventually Mel or Phil would be able to get him away from Rose long enough for the girls to slip away after Rose sent one more hex at Scorpius.

A similar thing kept on happening to Scorpius as well, if Mae was there, she would throw herself in front of Scorpius to stop Rose from hexing him. It never worked. Rose just ended up hexing them both and Scorpius couldn't retaliate as Mae was in the way.

The only person who found the arguing still amusing was Albus as he was always the one to see Scorpius and Rose with their 'injuries'. Many a time had Scorpius come back to the common room with bats flying out of his nose or jelly legs or enlarged teeth. Then Albus would be visiting his cousins in the Gryffindor common room and see Rose with multi-coloured hair or covered in some sort of goo or leeks sprouting out of her ears.

Albus wasn't the only one who visited his cousins, often they visited him. In particular, Hugo visited the Slytherin Common room. He got along well with Scorpius and he liked hanging around with other guys as his best friend was Lily who had other female friends.

By the persuasion of Ron, Hermione had stopped sending howlers to Rose. She managed to only get away with receiving three. Ron's argument had been that at least the arguing isn't exactly hurting anyone and at least she's practising defending herself and her grades haven't suffered at all. In fact, it had helped her grades, she and Scorpius were constantly in competition as to who could do better in class. This happened especially in potions, the only class other than herbology that Gryffindor shared with the Slytherins. Their professor eventually had to keep on pairing Rose and Scorpius together so they didn't kill each other when arguing over who's potion was better. Their working together meant that the classroom was quiet as neither wanted to talk and both were concentrating hard so not to mess up. They always received the highest marks.

 **CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS**

Rose and Hugo were at home. Hermione was still at work as everything had piled up despite her brilliant organisation and Ron was out buying last minute presents he had forgotten to buy for his siblings.

Rose had just sent off her presents to Phil and Mel and, because she was in a good mood, a small present to Anna who didn't mind Rose, but often get annoyed whenever she started speaking. Although if Rose was talking about Albus, Anna was all ears.

Rose sat in the living room, her feet tucked under her, a book in her lap and a mug of tea balanced carefully on the edge of the sofa. Hugo had been writing back and forth to Lily when he popped int the living room and slumped on the sofa next to his sister with a sigh. Rose quickly caught her tea before it spilled everywhere.

"Hugo!" She shouted annoyed that he had not seen her tea.

"Sorry." he mumbled.

Rose put down her book at stared curiously at her brother. "What's up?"

"Nothing."

"Well, obviously something is wrong and you need my help with it, otherwise you wouldn't have willingly sat next to me then sigh very loudly."

Hugo looked suspiciously up at her. "You're too smart for your own good. Did you know that?"

Rose stood to go to her bedroom, "Well, if you don't need my help…" she shrugged waiting for Hugo to stop her.

"Fine then." Hugo admitted defeat. "But I don't think you'll like me very much for asking."

"Hugo, just ask."

"Ok, well I've recently become pretty good friends with someone you hate…" Hugo hesitated.

Rose shook her head in a sarcastic sad way. "You've got to be more specific."

Hugo's shoulders dropped. "Oh come on Rose, you don't hate that many people. And you know exactly who I'm talking about."

Rose pursed her lips with disapproval. "I know you've gotten close to Malfoy, why do you want my help?"

"Albus said that Scorpius has a small gift for me for Christmas and I don't know what to get him."

Rose thought for a while. Hugo was getting a bit impatient.

"Is dad still out?" Rose eventually spoke.

"Umm, yeah." Hugo was confused.

Rose darted upstairs, Hugo shrugged and followed her into her bedroom where Rose was scanning her book shelf.

"Ok Hugo, what I'm about to do you can't tell anybody. This never leaves this room."

Hugo was freaked out by Rose's serious face.

"Promise me Hugo!" Rose insisted as she took a step forward with something clutched behind her back.

Hugo instinctively took a step back away from her and just nodded.

"Well, here." Rose handed Hugo an old book and they both sat on her bed.

"'Alice in Wonderland' ?" Hugo finally looked at the tattered book. "This was grandmas, she and mum used to read this to us all the time."

"Yeah, and it was one of the things she passed down to me. Malfoy told me that he would love to read it someday and I promised to let him borrow my copy." Rose placed a hand on the book. "That was before we stopped being friends. But a promise is a promise. So you can let him borrow this as a Christmas present and maybe buy him his own copy some other time."

"Thanks." Hugo sighed and hugged his sister. He knew how much this book meant to her. "I think this is perfect. And I promise I won't tell anyone that it's really from you."

"No one would believe you."

"I guess not."

 **CHRISTMAS DAY**

Rose had just finished helping a newly pregnant Victorie with the washing when Teddy Lupin came in the room. They started hugging and being all cute so Rose had to get out of there. She could see Albus out of the corner of her eye, he was emptying the bins outside so Rose quickly slipped out of the house to help him.

"Thanks. You know, I can't wait until we can use magic outside of school." Albus said as he and Rose emptied the last bin then skipped off to grab old broomsticks from the shed.

"I know, is it me or are chores getting more tedious?" Rose smiled in agreement.

Albus and Rose circled the Burrow a few times before stopping and hovering by a tree. Albus sat still but Rose was skilled enough to lay back and still remain hovering perfectly still and with exact balance.

"So you'll never guess what I got in the post." Albus swung his legs and broke the comfortable silence.

"Oh yeah?" Rose sat up ready for the challenge. "Give me three guesses."

Albus scoffed. "Alright, but I don't like your odds."

"Ok, first guess, a letter from Annabella Gardener declaring her undying crush on you."

Albus burst out laughing and almost fell off his broom. "No! But you're definitely going to have to tell me more about this Anna thing once you've finished guessing."

"What if I was making it up?"

"I doubt it Rose, I know when you're lying."

Rose shrugged, it was true. Albus knew her too well. "Second guess, Uncle Charlie sent you a pet dragon?"

Albus couldn't stop laughing now and his broom sank lower and lower until his feet were barely above the ground. Rose quickly joined him.

"I'm guessing that's a no. Alright, third and final guess, hmmm." Rose took a while to decide. "Ooh! A howler sent by James and Lorcan, which James himself hid until the time when it would explode then gave it to you."

"That's your guess? A howler from James hidden by James just so it would explode? Come on Rose, you know James's pranks are better than that."

"I'm not finished! James and Lorcan charmed it to explode with some sort of paint or the entire stock of Doxy eggs from our potions professor's storage cupboard."

"No, what I got in the post was-"

"Ingenious idea Rose!" Jame interrupted his little brother. "Definitely going to try a howler full of doxy eggs on someone. But who?" James turned and asked Roxanne who was coming up behind him.

"I have a list or two." Rose mumbled quietly but Roxanne heard and burst out laughing.

"What is Rose guessing?" Fred suddenly appeared. Rose and Albus didn't see him arrive.

"What I got in the post yesterday morning." Albus explained. "Anyone else wanna guess?"

"Ooh! A Niffler!" Rose said excitedly.

"Niffler?" Roxanne was baffled.

"Nifflers are rodent-like creatures with a long snout and a coat of black, fluffy fur. Native to Britain, they live in burrows as deep as twenty feet below ground. Nifflers are gentle by nature and can even be affectionate towards their owners. However, they can destroy belongings looking for sparkly objects, and for that reason it is inadvisable to keep them as a house pet." Rose said proudly.

"Thanks for the lecture Rose." Roxanne grumbled.

"Yeah. Anyway you've run out of guesses Rose." Albus rolled his eyes.

"So, is that a no?" Rose asked but her only reply was Albus pushing her off her broom. Which didn't hurt as they were very close to the ground. She picked herself up and brushed off the snow.

"The head of a troll!" Roxane suggested

"Ew." Fred looked disgusted and took a step away from his sister. "An old boot which turned out to be a portkey which is how you got here?"

"Oh, dear Fred." James gave a look of mock disappointment. "That was a boring guess. Ok! My turn! I'm going to go with-"

"James you were there when the letter arrived!" Albus looked at his brother as if he were an idiot. "I got a letter form a certain Mr Stirling."

"Bloody hell." Rose mumbled bitterly. "What did he want?!" she was annoyed at Felix.

"He wanted me to ask you to get back together with him." Albus shrugged and got off his broom.

Rose flopped to the ground, not caring that the snow was getting her trousers wet, and slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand. "Why can't he leave me alone? He was clingy while we dating and now he's turned into some sort of stalker-ex."

"Yeah, once I read that letter, then James stole it from me and read it out loud in the kitchen," Albus put an arm around Rose. Roxanne and Fred were trying to look sympathetic and James put on his 'saint' face. "We forced Lily to talk."

A twig hit Albus in the back of the head.

"Nice aim!" Hugo grinned at Lily as it was the youngest Potter who threw the twig at her brother.

"You weren't meant to tell her Albus, I was going to!"

"Anyway," Albus continued. "Lily told us that the daily letters you get are from Felix not, as you claimed, from your mum complaining about you fighting with Scorpius."

Rose huffed and stood. "Well, now you all know. But his letters have become less frequent, which I'm think is a good thing, but Lil-."

"I think he's just building up to something big. You should worry Rose, you really should." Lily seemed older than she was.

Rose changed the subject "I'm going inside to raid Hugo's stash of chocolate frogs, anyone else coming in?"

"Hey! Rose, they're mine." Hugo protested when all of their cousins agreed to take Hugo's chocolate frogs.

Rose shrugged and Hugo just let her go with it. He was going to share them with his cousins anyway on the train back to Hogwarts, it didn't hurt to do it earlier. They invited Lucy, Molly, Dominique and Louis to pig out with them, they happily agreed and so did Molly. Molly didn't seem her usual self but denied it to anyone who asked. She had just started her new job and recently broke up with Merlin Jordan, for reasons only Lucy knew. And neither sister was telling anyone anything.

 **CHRISTMAS DAY, MALFOY MANOR**

Lucius Malfoy had recently found out that Scorpius was no longer friends with Rose Weasley, so the entire family were subjected to listening to why Lucius hated the Weaselys for the entire dinner. It was long and boring. Scorpius may have fought with Rose everyday, but he still wasn't thrilled to hear his grandfather drone on about how they had more children than sense and how they were a disgrace to the wizard name.

Scorpius's father didn't say much, but the fourteen year old knew that he was pleased to no longer have his son friends with a Weasley. Astoria also didn't say much, but that was because she thought it a shame that Scorpius had lost a friend.

He had something to look forward to though, Albus was coming to visit the next day.

 **JANUARY**

Felix's letters to Rose had completely stopped after Christmas, something which Rose contributed to the fact that Albus had written back to him saying that Rose would never date him again. This meat that Rose was in a better mood, her arguments with Scorpius were still almost daily, but that was nothing to ruin her mood.

Scorpius and Albus had their first charms lesson of the new year with Hufflepuffs. they were learning how to summon objects and they overheard the Professor telling a group of Hufflepuff girls how proud he was of his student Weasley in Gryffindor. They were attempting to summon tea cups from one side of the room to the students standing on the other side of the room, without breaking them. Felix was having trouble even getting the tea cup to move, where as Mae's tea cup seemed to smash itself every time it was lifted a centimetre.

"Oh, she's very skilled, very skilled indeed. She managed to summon the tea cup without breaking it on her fifth try! Yes, very skilled indeed." the professor was more muttering to himself, about Rose, than anyone in particular

Scorpius tried four times. Each time it got closer and closer before it smashed. He was determined not to go over five tries. He wanted to beat Rose.

"Is there something I'm doing wrong professor?" Scorpius eventually asked for help.

The professor looked astonished at the question as Scorpius was doing the best in the class so far. The entire class heard the question and stared angrily at Scorpius. He was doing well, the rest were failing miserably, and he had the audacity at ask for help. They all groaned at him then tried a few more times.

"You're doing fine young Malfoy. So long as you have the teacup clearly in mind, you should be able to summon it with ease!" the professor answered with a spring in his voice.

Albus laughed. "Worried you're not gonna beat Rose, huh?"

Scorpius nodded. He closed his eyes and thought about what the professor had said. He envisioned the teacup. held out his hand and said clearly 'accio'. It didn't work. The teacup was almost at his hand before it fell to the ground and smashed. Scorpius rolled his eyes at his own failure. But on his sixth try, the teacup came to him straight away. He grinned, until he realised that Rose had beaten him. Again.

Meanwhile Rose was in Transfiguration turning a hedgehog into a pincushion. The professor told them very proudly that Scorpius had only taken four attempts to make the transfiguration. Rose felt a surge of competitiveness and managed the full transformation within three attempts. It earned her fifty points for Gryffindor as she was the only one, despite being in a class with Ravenclaws, to successfully master the spell.

Of course, at the end of the day, when Scorpius and Rose eventually crossed paths in the corridor, he was crushed to know that she had beaten him in both subjects. They both left that corridor with multicoloured hair, although Scorpius's was curly and possibly fluffy enough to rival Rose's natural fluff. Rose had radishes coming out of her ears and large buck teeth. Scorpius had been attacked by some spell he did not recognise which caused a blow to his crutch and, although he had no pain in his right leg, could not stop limping.

Rose spent her days visiting Hagrid, hanging out with Phil and Mel, dodging Felix and making sure she knew what James and Lorcan's next prank was going to be so she could warn her friends and make sure they weren't anywhere near.

Fourth year was the year before they started O. and so the work load kept on piling up to prepare them for the following year. Rose found the only way to stay on top of this was to spend a few hours every evening in the library. This also turned out to be a great chance to be with her best friend everyday without Scorpius. While Rose refused to let Albus copy her essays for potions, charms and transfiguration, she did check through his work so he ended up the correct answers anyway.

These daily homework sessions in the library also presented an opportunity for Rose to make a new friend. Katie Webb. She was the famous 'friendless Ravenclaw.' But Rose had no idea why, the girl was an absolute delight. She was smarter than Rose and therefore they enjoyed spirited conversations where Rose learnt more than she actually said. Katie got along with Albus as well, when she wasn't talking about lessons and interesting facts, that just bored him. It was like having a smarter Rose, just less argumentative, a lot taller and she had dead straight black hair.

Scorpius used the evenings to do his homework in the Slytherin common room. Unluckily for him, Mae Blinston liked to sit and watch him, or sit and talk at him, or sit and complain to him, or sit and bitch and moan about Rose, or sit and drool over him. She changed up what she did every few days, but mostly she was there to flick her hair and flirt while trying to distract Scorpius from his work.

One morning, in potions class, Rose was slightly stressed but still happily sitting with Phil and Mel and Scorpius on the other side of the class. They were making notes when the professor announced that they were to get into their usual pairs to attempt the preparation for Girding potion so that they could start brewing the potion straight away the next day.

Rose and Scorpius begrudgingly made their way to their usual table near the professor's desk at the front of the class. They scowled at one another.

"Weasley."

"Malfoy."

They curtly acknowledged each others presence.

They heard a snigger behind them, unmistakably from Albus. The pair ignored him and turned to the task at hand. The professor had given them small containers so that they could measure out their ingredients ready for the following lesson. Needless to say it was done with a few squabbles of what 'a measure of doxy eggs' meant or whether or not to toast the dragonfly thoraxes then or wait until just before they put it in the potion. These tiny arguments made the tension and irritation between Rose and Scorpius grow. When the professor announced the class were dismissed, Rose and Scorpius turned around to see the entire class had spilt ingredients, already blown up stuff in their faces and squirted some sort of goo across the classroom. And this was only the boring preparation, not the actual potion brewing. The professor dreaded the next lesson where the real mess would begin.

Rose and Scorpius looked at one another with mildly suspicious surprise. Despite hating each other, they had made practically no mess or mistakes compared to everyone else.

They really did work well as a team.

This realisation did not sit well with either of them. So, with a huff and a bitter glance, Scorpius and Rose left the class. The professor peeped over at their desk and smiled. He had done well to put them together.

 **FEBRUARY, THE DAY BEFORE VALENTINE'S DAY**

"Guess who's got a date!" James triumphantly sat between Rose and Fred.

"I thought you already had a girlfriend." Fred's eyebrows knit together in confusion.

James shrugged. "I had to break up with her."

"Why? and who are we talking about?" Roxanne appeared opposite them. She had been talking to someone on the Ravenclaw table.

"James broke up with someone we didn't even know he was dating." Rose shrugged and continued eating her toast."

"Oh, Lucile?" Roxanne guessed.

"No, haven't dated her since third year."

"You idiot, you dated Lucile again last year." Rose chimed in.

"Oh yeah." James smirked. "Merlin, that was a mess."

Fred was still confused. "Then who did you recently date? And for how long were you with her?"

"And why'd you break up?" Roxanne chimed in.

Rose smiled as she took another bite of toast. Her family were so nosey.

"Bea. She's in Ravenclaw, a sixth year."

"Ooh, an older woman." Rose teased

James grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. "We only dated for a week."

"Who? All your relationships last two weeks at the most." Lorcan joined them now. "Apart from Lucile, but she's always been special t-." James kicked Lorcan under the table to shut him up. "So which girlfriend are we talking about?"

"Bea." Roxanne answered.

"Oh, well she did not like me." Lorcan scoffed and grabbed a handful of toast. "Apparently I'm some sort of 'bad influence' on James. But my dad would say it's the other way around," he looked mockingly sympathetic at James. "sorry mate."

Understanding dawned on James's cousins. There was no way James would continue dating a girl if she hated his best friend.

"Wait, Bea is Lucy's friend."

"Yeah, I realised that too late and Lucy told Professor Stockett that me and Lorcan put biting jinxes on all the doorknobs in the dungeon classrooms including the Slytherin common room."

Fred nodded in approval. "Good on Lucy, sticking up for her friends!"

"Yeah, alright." James rolled his eyes. "But the thing is, it wasn't us."

They all paused for a moment, then stared at Rose.

Rose suddenly stood, leaving half her toast untouched. "Well, would you look at the time." She pointed at her empty wrist.

"Rose?" James said suspiciously.

Rose only grinned.

"No way?! Really?!" Lorcan was excited and impressed.

Rose leant on the table and slyly took another bite of her toast. "Maybe."

"Awesome!" Lorcan and James said at the same time. Both giving her a high-five. Roxanne laughed and Fred looked disapproving.

"So who are you going out with on Valentine's Day?" Roxanne asked.

"Mabel, Gryffindor."

"No! James! She's, like, my only female friend. The rest seem to hate me." Roxanne was suddenly alarmed. She was right though, she was a bit tomboyish and some girls were intimidated by her. And the fact that the majority of the friends she hung out with were boys who had girlfriends who didn't like their boyfriends hanging around with another girl.

Before she knew what was happening, someone gently grabbed Rose by the wrist and was leaning her away from the Gryffindor table. It was Felix. Rose rolled her eyes as her cousins glared at him. But eventually each one had to leave Rose behind to go to class.

Phil and Mel were waiting for Rose just outside the hall after breakfast. There was nothing Rose could do to get out talking of to Felix, so she agreed to go to the quiet and empty end of the Hufflepuff table to talk.

"Wonder what he's talking to her about?"

"It's obvious isn't it?" Phil shrugged.

"Huh?" Mel Fawley wasn't the brightest spark.

"It's Valentine's Day tomorrow and it's a Hogsmeade weekend."

Mel's mouth made a perfect 'o' shape as realisation dawned. Melissa Fawley came from a rich pure-blood family, but her parents were not prejudice. In fact they embraced Mel's friendship with a muggle born such as Phil and with Rose who had a muggle born mother. Although sometimes, when Phil came to visit, Mel's parents could be quite embarrassing as they often treated muggle borns as a novelty and bragged to their friends at fancy social events at how their open mindedness had brought them a daughter who loved muggle borns. They didn't mean to act this way, they were genuinely proud of Mel and her siblings for not caring about a friend's family background.

Then, this 'fascination' with a family so different to their own, could be found within Phil's muggle family also. Her mothers found all wizard families very intriguing as they wished to understand their daughter's new world.

By the time Rose caught up with her friends, breakfast was over and they were rushing to charms which they had with Ravenclaws.

Rose was not in a good mood and as they wrote down notes about the summoning charm, she was pressing so hard with her quill that in was practically carving into the desk.

Phil and Mel did not get a chance to talk to Rose until lunch time.

"I have to find a date within the next few hours!" Rose burst out angrily to them.

"What?" Phil and Mel asked at the same time.

"Bloody Felix came up to me, acting all sympathetic because he just happened to notice that I don't have a date for Valentine's Day! Ugh, that guy is getting on my nerves! He's so bloody persistent."

Lily couldn't help but overhear this. She slid along the bench at the lunch table and joined in the conversation.

"Rose, you think Valentine's Day is stupid, why start caring now?"

"Because of that creep!" Rose violently stuck her head slightly to the left to indicate to Felix on the Hufflepuff table. (He was staring at Rose and gave a small smile and a wave when he noticed Rose look back.) "He gave me a look of pity and offered to get back together with me. Then he started whining about how he missed me so I stopped listening and revised part of my Ancient Runes homework in my head."

Mel smiled. "Just come to Hogsmeade with me and Phil. Single girls weekend thing!"

"Oh, actually," Phil said guiltily. "I have a date for tomorrow."

"Ooh! Who?" Mel excitedly turned to Phil and forgot Rose's problem.

Lily rolled her eyes. It wasn't that she hated Rose's friends, it was just that she preferred them when they were no where quiet. But, for Rose at least, Lily could stand to be around Phil and Mel.

"Well, he's a Gryffindor and someone we all know." Phil teased them with hints. Only Mel was biting.

"Ooh just tell me!"

"For your sake I hope it's not one of my cousins." Rose mumbled.

"It's Sulli! He asked me out yesterday, and I was going to tell you but I wanted it to be a surprise." Phil squealed.

Rose was in a bad mood so, despite how happy she was for her friend, the squealing gave her a headache.

Phil was referring to Sullivan Earls, a Gryffindor who was best friends with Grant Hathaway and Wesley McLaggen. Most girls had a crush on Grant and Wesley but when they were taken, Sullivan was the next best thing.

Lily coughed which snapped Phil back to Rose.

"Right, sorry Rose." She reassuringly squeezed her friends arm across the table. "But, if you think Valentine's Day is pointless, why even bother getting a date?"

Rose ran her hands through her hair. "Felix really wants to get back together and seems to have it in his small mind that if I'm not with anyone, then I'm obviously keeping myself available for him! He even said 'if you find yourself lonely, just know that I'll always love you.' He wants to meet up tomorrow and I know that if I'm not with a date, he will ask me out again."

"Then just don't go to Hogsmeade." Lily suggested.

"Won't work." Phil shook her head and answered for Rose. "Felix is kind of obsessed with Rose, if he knows she isn't going to Hogsmeade, he'll stay too and find someway of cornering her."

"Hey, what if you come with us as we are about to leave the castle, so Felix sees you and assumes you're leaving too. But at the last minute go back inside without saying a word. You me and Phil can walk near the back so you can slip away."

"No, Mel. That's the most ridic-" Rose paused and sat up a little taller. "That might actually work. And it's great because I still have a Magical Creatures essay to finish about Manitcores. And I will know for sure that Felix won't be in the castle to stalk me!"

Lily chuckled at Rose. "Good luck, you sound like you'll have a thrilling Valentine's Day."

"It's a normal day which has been given a pointless meaning. So I'm going to be doing some normal homework on the pointless day."

Mel took a while to understand Rose's sentence.

"Did you know, that Valentine's Day actually celebrated the death of Saint Valentine. He was imprisoned for marrying Christian couples, and when he refused to renounce his faith, they executed him."

"Ugh, nobody cares Rose." Lily rolled her eyes, but was still smiling at her cousin's archive of pointless knowledge.

Phil laughed. "Trust Rose to make Valentine's Day boring."

Mel scoffed and joined in. "Trust Rose to make Valentine's Day about death."

What Rose didn't know, was that Scorpius was having a very similar problem. Mae Blinston had asked him out and when he said no, she made a pouty face briefly then went back to flicking her hair and flirting with him.

"Just say yes, let her date you for a few weeks just to get it out of her system." Albus shrugged and tried to give advice.

"But, when we break up, we wont be friends anymore."

"Then only go to Hogsmeade with her."

"Al, you know she'll read more into it. And once again our friendship will be over."

"Sorry mate," Albus mumbled while eating his sandwich. "but I think there is no way around this without you and Mae losing a friendship."

Scorpius sighed "If only she would stop flirting and asking me out, then our friendship would be fine."

Albus scoffed. "Are you kidding? Your friendship with Mae is practically built on her flirting with you. Look, if you're really that concerned, don't go to Hogsmeade tomorrow."

"Worth a try. Anyway, what are you doing tomorrow?"

"Got a date." Albus smugly grinned. "Girl in Ravenclaw, in our year. Her name is Katie Webb."

"Is that the girl who has no friends?" Scorpius didn't mean to sound horrible, but it was true.

Poor Katie Webb was a friendless Ravenclaw. This was mostly due to the fact that Robin Stirling, the most popular Ravenclaw, was threatened by how smart Katie was and therefore disliked her.

"So how come you've got a date with her."

Albus shrugged. "To say she hasn't any friends isn't exactly true. I mean, Rose is nice to her. When I got to the library to get Rose's help on stuff, Katie is always there and I started talking to her once when she borrowed a book off Rose. I found that she was actually really nice and I asked her out on a date."

"Al, You have got to be one of the nicest Slytherins in history."

Albus smiled. "We're not all bad."

"Speaking of history, did you know that Valentine's Day actually celebrates the death of Saint Valentine. He was imprisoned for-"

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Albus rolled his eyes. "Some guy died on some day so we made some pointless event out of it. Mate, I get the same history lecture from Rose every year."

Scorpius's shoulders slumped slightly. (try saying that five times fast). Rose had beaten him again.

 **VALENTINE'S DAY**

Mel's plan had worked. Rose went along with Phil and Mel and their dates, Mel had found one within minutes of their conversation the day before, Felix saw her and tried to walk with them but luckily Mel distracted him. Rose fell to the back of the group and slipped back inside the castle without anyone noticing.

Rose got up to the library, set out all her books and began her homework. She was surprised not to see Katie Webb in their, 'maybe Albus actually did ask her out' she thought.

Rose was alone in the library for about an hour before the last person she wanted to see walked in.

Scorpius Malfoy.

To her shock Scorpius did not sit on the opposite side of the room to Rose, but only sat one table over. Rose shrugged, deciding she didn't care, and went back to writing.

Scorpius looked around to see that the librarian was nowhere to be seen and scooted up so that he sat opposite Rose.

"What do you want Malfoy?" She practically growled.

"Ooh, not a friendly." Scorpius smirked. "So, no date today Weasley?"

"None of your business Malfoy."

"If it helps, I don't have a date either."

"Naww, nobody wants to go out with selfish stuck up Malfoy?" Rose feigned sympathy. "Then all is right with the world." She added bitterly.

"Well, how do you know someone didn't ask me out and I said no?" Scorpius said defensively.

"Because I don't care enough about you to find out." Rose stood, shovelled all her books into her arms and moved to a table on the opposite side of the library.

Rose tripped and her books went flying everywhere. Again she was shocked by Scorpius, he did not laugh at her. Rose picked up her books, refusing to look in Scorpius's direction.

Rose had not been sitting at her new table for longer than ten minutes when Scorpius came and sat with her again.

"What are you doing?" Rose snapped.

"Just doing what we always do Weasley, annoy the hell out of each other." Scorpius smiled. The smile irritated Rose more than it should have.

"Well, congratulations. You've successfully annoyed me enough that this bad mood will last all day."

"What do I win?" Scorpius said with a cocky grin.

"This." Rose was about to hex him when the headmaster walked in with a cheerful spring in his step.

"Why, Miss Weasley, Mr Malfoy! It is wonderful to see you two having the ability to get on. You know, you two are such great academics, and now I see that you can go a day without causing disturbances, I guess you truly are great role models! You know with prefects being chosen and all- alas! I've said too much." The headmaster beamed down at them.

Rose could do nothing but lower her wand very slowly in hopes that the headmaster did not notice that he interrupted an argument. Rose and Scorpius smiled awkwardly at the headmaster, who noticed but mistook it as something else.

"Oh! But I must be interrupting something special here, this being Valentine's Day and all! Well-"

"No sir, you've got it wrong-"

"Sir we're not-"

Rose and Scorpius tried to interrupt but the headmaster just gave them a knowing smile.

"I know chemistry when I see it! But don't worry, your secrets safe with me," he tapped his nose twice. "enjoy your chance at young love." The headmaster grinned and chuckled all the way back to his office.

Rose couldn't speak or even move. She just stared wide eyed at the open door where the headmaster had left. Scorpius turned slightly pink and fidgeted with his wand, also not daring to look at Rose.

After what seemed like hours, Scorpius finally stood up making a scraping sound with his chair which snapped Rose out of her trance.

She huffed and scooped her books into her bag. "Well done!" She said sarcastically. "Now the headmaster thinks we're going out and that there's- there's, you know-" she didn't want to say it but the word forced its way through. "Chemistry!"

Rose stormed out of the library but stopped in the door way. "This is all your fault." She bitterly said through gritted teeth.

"My fault?!" Scorpius took long strides to catch up with Rose in the hallway.

"Yeah! You could've left me alone. You could've sat on the other side of the library in silence rather than bugging me. Or better yet, you could've just left!"

"Hey! I was trying to be nice! I saw you doing that Manticore homework and I'd thought I'd help." Scorpius shrugged, he knew he was lying. He just hoped Rose didn't notice.

Rose snorted. "When have I ever needed your help?"

"Fine, then maybe I thought you could help me do the homework!" Scorpius was pulling at straws. When he first saw Rose in the library, his first instinct was to leave, but then he thought that perhaps they could try and get along for a day. It was Valentine's Day after all and they both were alone and seemed to be in a sluggish mood.

"No, Malfoy. My opinions don't matter to you, you've always made that much clear." Rose spat at him and stormed off to the Gryffindor common room.

Scorpius was left staring after her. 'I guess she hates me more than I thought.'

 **FEBRUARY, DAY AFTER VALENTINE'S DAY**

Rose was in a fowl mood. Everybody could see it. It was as if steam was blowing out of her ears. She sat down with a thump at the Gryffindor table. The Gryffindors in her family who sat near her, not so subtly moved a few inches away. Even Albus could see Rose's bad mood from the Slytherin table. He was going to see if she was ok but he had second thoughts. Albus was still trying to get used to the whole, 'Scorpius and Rose aren't friends' thing. Although Scorpius next to him also seemed worried for Rose. Albus saw his other cousins who weren't in Gryffindor, Lucy, Louis and Dominique, were also straining to see what was happening on the Gryffindor table.

Eventually Lily took the brave step of talking to Rose.

"Hey." She greeted as she gingerly sat opposite Rose.

Rose grunted in reply.

"What's wrong?"

Rose grunted in reply.

"I hate Valentine's Day." she grumbled.

"Yeah, I know, you think it's pointless, you told me so yesterday. But, it was yesterday."

"Hate is a strong word. I think I chose poorly. I didn't hate valentines day before, I only thought it was pointless, but yesterday I began to hate valentines day."

"Huh? Is this some sort of riddle from that muggle book you always read?"

"'Alice in Wonderland' ?"

"Yeah, that one."

"No."

Lily frowned in confusion. She looked over to her other cousins who were obviously listening in but none of them seemed to understand Rose either. Only Fred replied, and that was only with a shrug.

"Rose? You wanna make more sense?"

Rose sighed. "I now hate Valentine's Day because I didn't realise how stupid and clingy and lovey-dovey people get. And people won't leave you alone. They see it as an excuse to get all sickly romantic and stupid. And stupid people you thought were over you, stupidly remind you that they are always there no matter what." Rose was agitated.

"You said stupid four times." Lily smiled hoping to cheer Rose up. It didn't work.

"Look," Rose pulled a piece of parchment out of her pocket. "A certain stupid person sent me this yesterday."

Her cousins suddenly became very interested in the piece of folded parchment and forgot that they were pretending not to listen in. They all scooted closer to Rose and Lily. Lucy came over from the Ravenclaw table and Dominique and Louis came from the Hufflepuff table, to sit down with them. Curiosity also got the better of them. Before Lily opened the parchment she asked Rose a few questions, knowing that their cousins were dying to know what was on the parchment and stalling would wind them up.

"Is this a letter?" Lily asked.

Rose nodded.

"But you only got the Daily Profit in the post yesterday, I remember. How was this sent to you?"

"Well, the sender found a way to have it slipped under the door of my dormitory. I don't know how, and it creeped my out a little bit."

"LILY JUST OPEN IT!" James almost shouted at his sister. Not knowing what was on the parchment was driving him crazy.

Lily finally opened the parchment and read quietly out loud so only her cousins could hear. The rest of the school pretty much knew by now that if the Weasleys and Potters were huddled together, you're best to to interferer or eavesdrop.

Dearest Rose,

Every time I'm near you nothing else in the world matters, even when we just stand in an awkward silence while we line up for class, I still feel happier than I've ever been. We haven't really spoken much since we broke up but I don't know what it is about you, I've never met another girl who has the same effect on me. Happy valentines day.

Yours ever devoted,

Felix Stirling

James and Roxanne were desperately trying to hide their giggles. Rose noticed their suppressed miles and sighed.

"Go ahead, someone needs to laugh at it. I'm too weirded out to laugh and Lily is too polite."

"So how did this get under your door?" Hugo asked

Rose shrugged. "I thought one of you guys might have done it?"

They all shook their heads and she believed them. Her family didn't mind Felix while he was dating Rose as he was nice but as soon as they broke up, they honestly admitted that they found him annoying. Rose knew that none of them would do anything to help Felix contact her. Not that they could really stop it all together as Rose still had a few classes with Felix.

"One of the girls in your dorm? Would they have done it?" Dominique asked with genuine concern

"I asked, they didn't know who Felix was until I dated him and I'm sure they would have given it to me directly rather than leave it stuck half way under our door."

"This is very strange. I can't imagine he could have guessed the Gryffindor password or entered with someone else. Even if that was possible, someone would have noticed that he wasn't a Gryffindor and he never would have known which was your dormitory." Lucy knitted her brows in concentration.

"There are no secret passage ways into he common room." James helpfully eliminated that possibility.

"Now that is a bit creepy. And clingy. Poor Rose." Hugo patted his sister's arm, he didn't sound sarcastic at all. In fact he was a bit freaked out himself.

"Is there a charm he could've used?" Roxanne spoke a bit too loudly, but no one in the hall seemed to be listening in, they were all busy with their breakfast talking amongst themselves.

"Not one that I know of." Rose rested her head in her hands.

"I hate to interrupt a family moment," Professor Stockett head of Ravenclaw and the games teacher, came up to the Gryffindor table, "But unless there is a family emergency that requires all of you, I suggest you lot go to class."

They looked around to see that the hall was empty except for them. They all hurried to grab their bags, hurrying apologies to Professor Stockett as they left the hall. Rose had potions next with Slytherins, at least she could try to get Albus away from Scorpius long enough to tell Albus.

Scorpius however, seemed have other plans. They were only making notes so luckily she wasn't partnered with him, but Scorpius didn't leave Albus's side which forced Rose to do what she did best after class.

"Hey, Albus. I need to talk to y-" Rose called from behind Scorpius and Albus who were making their way to charms while Rose was meant to be going to history.

"Get lost Weasley, no one wants you here." Scorpius groaned.

"Malfoy, this doesn't concern you. So don't worry your tiny brain and run along now." Rose crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows expecting him to comply.

"I don't take orders from you Weasley."

"Shame." Rose said in a monotone voice. She turned to Albus, "Can we talk for a moment?"

Albus began to follow Rose to a quiet part of the corridor when Scorpius followed behind.

"Shove off Malfoy!" Rose shouted over her shoulder, she didn't need to turn around to know he was following. He persisted and Rose briefly spun around and pointed her wand at him. "Petrificus Totalus" She put him in a full body-bind. "Stay." She instructed with a sour smile.

Once she had shown Albus the letter, they were already late for their next classes and agreed to meet up after lunch without Scorpius.

"I swear, if Malfoy turns up I'll use my bat-bogey hex."

Albus looked warily at Rose, to be honest he was slightly scared for Scorpius. "You know what, I'll give him a heads up."

Rose nodded and was about to walk away when Albus spoke again.

"By the way, I know you weren't at Hogsmeade yesterday and you might not have noticed, but Scorpius wasn't there either. Well, when I got back he was in a weird mood. I was just wondering if you saw him around the castle, or if you saw anything happen."

Rose took a deep breath and contemplated whether or not to tell Albus what had happened. "Well, I was- he joined me in the library and we almost got into a fight. Then the headmaster came along-" Rose sighed. "You know what, just ask Malfoy."

Rose walked away, Albus frowned with confusion then helped Scorpius out of the full body-bind.

When Albus read Felix's letter, he was angry.

"What is wrong with that guy?! I thought he was nice, but now he's just stalking you!"

"Woah," Rose gave a small laugh. "Calm down there Al."

"How can you be so calm about this?"

"Because I've had over 24 hours to get used to it."

"But you shouldn't have to be used to it Rose."

"I know." Rose sighed. She could've hugged Albus, he was such an understanding person.

"Wait, is this why you weren't at Hogsmeade? You were avoiding him?"

Rose nodded.

"Maybe you're right, maybe Valentine's Day is pointless."

"How was your date with Katie?" Rose excitedly changed the subject.

"Oh, well umm…" Albus shrugged. "She's nice, and I think we'll be good friends but…"

"But?"

"It was so awkward! We didn't have much to say to one another. When we got back to the castle, she even said that, and I quote, 'It was really nice hanging out as friends'! Which I don't mind."

"Ooh, change of subject. Did you know James has another new girlfriend?"

Albus chuckled. "What else is new?"

They continued to talk for the rest of lunch then they had to go their separate ways as Rose had Ancient Runes and Albus had Muggle studies.

 **MAY**

Scorpius had managed to both ruin and improve Rose's day. First, he had ruined it, kind of, by starting a argument and a hexing match on their way to Magical creatures class. Then improved it by failing miserably in Herbology to use the Orchideous incantation, a spell that conjures a bouquet of flowers from the end of the caster's wand.

It was a Friday night and Rose was in the library on her own. Albus had only one essay to do and Katie Webb had been so badly teased by Lloyd Parkinson, the Slytherin in the year below, that she had refused to come out of her dormitory after her last lesson. Rose made a mental note to hex Parkinson for good measure when she next saw him.

Scorpius was in a bad mood. His failure in Herbology had humiliated him. Although it wasn't really a failure, the majority of the class had not been able to complete the incantation within the lesson, it only seemed like a failure as he had been beaten by Rose. And now he needed her help.

Albus was sitting in the Slytherin common room with Hugo who had come to visit and was badly loosing.

"Hey, have you seen Weasley?" Scorpius asked Albus.

Albus shrugged. "You've got to be more specific. There's a Weasley sitting in front of me, and then about six others dotted around the castle. Then hundreds around Britain and one in Romania."

"Romania?" Scorpius was confused.

"Uncle Charlie lives in Romania and works with dragons." Hugo answered.

Scorpius sighed. "Ok then, where's you sister?" He asked Hugo.

But Hugo and Albus were not looking at who the question was directed at. They both knew he was looking for Rose but they didn't want to make it easy for him, it was funnier this way. So Albus answered.

"Lils is probably somewhere in the Gryffindor common room."

Hugo shook his head. "Nah, last time I saw her she was sneaking down to the kitchens because she made some bet with James and now owes him a tray of biscuits."

Albus chuckled.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Do you know where Rose is?" He hadn't called her that in such a long time, it felt weird in his mouth.

Albus smiled. "Probably still in the library. I was with her only half an hour ago and she still had a few more notes to make."

Scorpius gave an exasperated sigh.

Mae Blinston had overheard the conversation. She flicked her hair and strutted up to the three boys.

"Why are you looking for Weasel?" she scoffed.

Hugo and Albus stood at once, giving death stares to Mae.

"Don't call us that!"

"That's my family!"

Scorpius managed to slip away as Albus and Hugo shouted at Mae. Eventually the prefects had to get involved and Hugo was told to leave.

When Scorpius got to the library, he took a deep breath and swallowed his pride. He needed help with this incantation. It was either ask Rose or ask her friend Phil, who Scorpius had never spoken to in his life so he thought it best to ask the former, even though she hated his guts.

Scorpius knew deep down inside, so deep that he tried to force it even deeper away and out of his thoughts, that he really didn't mind being around Rose. Even if being around Rose meant arguing and walking away with jelly legs or spots on his forehead that spelt 'arsehole'. Sometimes, against his will, Scorpius found the highlight of his day was a screaming match with Rose. And that infuriated him, he and Rose were now enemies and he missed her as a friend.

He heard a disgusted sound come from one of the desks in the library and he walked towards it. It could only be Rose. He was right.

"For Merlin's sake, what do you want now?" Rose rolled her eyes but did not stop writing her notes.

"I need your help." Scorpius muttered bitterly.

"You need my-" Rose finally looked up. "I thought we established that my opinions don't matter to you?" Rose was just as bitter as Scorpius now.

"Yeah but," Scorpius sat uninvited opposite Rose, she scowled. "That Orchideous incantation threw me today, and if it turns up in the exam in two weeks, I'm screwed."

"Why should I care about your exams?"

"I'll pay you?" he suggested

Rose scoffed. "Oh, you poor little rich boy. Don't you know that money can't buy you everything?"

"Then what do you want?"

"Let's just say, if I help you, then you owe me. Deal?"

Rose stuck out her hand for him to shake. Scorpius was reminded of the first time he met her on the train. He looked at her hand suspiciously.

"Owe you what?"

"Not sure yet, I guess we'll find out someday."

Scorpius shrugged and shook her hand. Rose went back to making notes and Scorpius sat looking expectantly at her.

"We're not starting now." Rose snapped. "It's Friday night, I want to finish this last paragraph then go back to the common room to spend time with my friends."

"Then when can you teach me?"

Rose thought for a moment. "Hogsmeade weekend tomorrow, you wanna try then?"

Rose knew she was using Scorpius to get out of going to the village alone again. It may not be Valentine's Day, but Felix cornered her twice last time, in the Three Broomsticks, to ask her out. She couldn't take it anymore.

Scorpius was about to laugh in her face and refuse to use up his Hogsmeade weekend to study with her, then he remembered how Mae always got extra flirty once outside the Hogwarts doors and decided that practicing incantations with Rose would save his friendship with Mae better.

"Alright then. I'll meet you here after everyone leaves."

Rose nodded and went back to making notes, Scorpius got the hint and left her alone.

"YOU'RE DOING WHAT?!" Albus shouted at Scorpius in the common room later that evening.

"Shhh, keep your voice down!" Scorpius looked around to see that quite a lot of people were staring at them.

"Yeah! But… I thought… But you hate each other! Why is she helping you?!" Albus spluttered when Scorpius finally convinced him to go and talk in their dormitory.

"Not sure, I didn't really expect her to say yes." Scorpius shrugged. "I offered to pay her."

Albus snorted. "Bet she took that well." His eyebrows knit in concentration. "I guess Rose can't hate you as much as I thought."

"Maybe, or I just happen to be enemies with someone who, unluckily for me, is actually a nice person, nice enough to help the person she hates. Which then makes Malfoy the bad guy, and Weasley the loveable and undeserving victim."

"Rose is no victim, when you two duel you're so evenly matched that neither comes out looking a victim or the bad guy." Albus sighed. "But she is a good person, I know she hates a few people, but no one she hates enough that she would want to see them fail. Rose likes to help if she can, and if you ask. Besides, the people she hates, she hates for a valid reason."

"Thanks mates." Scorpius sighed, rolled his eyes then rolled on to his bed, face down.

"Well, you said so yourself, you weren't a good friend to her."

Scorpius did not answer. He had no way to defend himself.

 **THE NEXT MORNING**

Rose had had a good morning. She had a nice lay in, she avoided bored looks from Anna, she hadn't tripped over anything and only dropped her hairbrush once. Mel had successfully distracted Felix, who had been waiting in the entrance hall for Rose, and the lovely houses-elves had a special tray of biscuits saved for her in the kitchens. Rose found an empty classroom, shoved her Herbology book and biscuits on a stacked pile of chairs, then waited outside the library for Scorpius.

His lateness dampened her mood.

After ten minutes, when Scorpius still hadn't turned up, Rose gave up and made her way back to the empty classroom to collect her stuff. But on the way she heard someone crying. Rose popped her head around a corner to see a lumpy tapestry shaking and the sound of sobbing echoing from behind it. Rose yanked back the tapestry to find a first year Gryffindor boy, who she had seen around the common room a lot, was crying.

Rose wasn't good with crying people, she felt awkward. Luckily, but to her annoyance, Scorpius turned up. He looked at her questioningly then comforted the first year. Through sniffles the boy was able to tell them that some third year Slytherins had stolen his rugby ball.

Rose suddenly stood and charged in the direction that the first year had pointed. In the next corridor she found Lloyd Parkinson and his friends laughing and attempting to pop the rugby ball. Rose flicked her wand and shouted 'Immobulus' , a freezing charm. She yanked the rugby ball away from Parkinson just as Scorpius ran around the corner after her.

"Weasley? What did you do?!"

Rose scowled at the group of Slytherins and then at Scorpius. "I'm going to find a prefect or a teacher. You stay with the kid and leave them frozen." she indicated to the group of boys.

Scorpius dared not mess with Rose when she was in such a fowl mood. He went back to the first year Gryffindor and found a bit more about him. His name was Kibwe Smith and was a friend of Rose's Hufflepuff cousin Louis, he was a muggle born with an African mother and an American father. They lived in Seattle in America so he only got to see his parents during the summer holidays. He had been scared of coming to a wizard school as he had been told by his older brother, who was also at Hogwarts and was a year older than Scorpius, about the two wizard wars and the old hatred of muggle borns. This made Scorpius even angrier at Lloyd for picking on a kid that was worried enough about being a muggle born without some older kids picking on him. They gave Slytherin a worse name than they already had.

After a while, Scorpius ran out of things to say and Kibwe stopped crying. Scorpius didn't think anything needed to be said until he heard Professor Stockett shouting at Lloyd and his friends. Scorpius tried to cover up the sound by talking about Kibwe's brother.

"So, what's his name?"

"Mosi. He's in Ravenclaw."

"Oh, Smith!" Scorpius suddenly remembered. "Mosi Smith, he plays keeper right?"

Kibwe seemed to suddenly cheer up as he swelled with pride. "Yeah! You know him?"

"Well, I've seen him play quidditch but that's about it."

"I know Mosi, he's friends with my cousin Roxanne." Rose appeared beside them.

Kibwe gave a cheeky smile. "Oh, I know Roxanne. She's always with my brother, he even offered to visit her during the summer holidays last year."

"He offered to fly all the way from America just to see her?"

Kibwe shrugged. "Actually, now we both know that we're wizards, we travel a lot. Sometimes by broom, with my grandparents. But mostly we use the floo network."

Rose looked horrified at the idea of how unsafe it was for muggle grandparents to take young kids on broomsticks across the Atlantic ocean. Kibwe noticed her face.

"Oh, no, don't worry. Both my dad's parents are squibs so they know all about the wizard world and how to fly safely on brooms. It was just, during the wizard war, even though it was predominantly in the UK, my grandparents went into hiding and shut off the wizard world all together and never told my dad or anyone else about the world they came from. My brother and I turning out to be wizards and finding out that his parents were squibs was quite a shock for my dad. He was worried mum might leave him because it was so overwhelming, but she actually took it better than he did."

Rose surprised them all, including herself, by hugging Kibwe.

"I'm so sorry that your grandparents felt the need to hide themselves. And I'm sorry that there are still idiots who have such prejudices. But most of us are good, most of us don't care where someone comes from."

Kibwe smiled. "Thanks for getting my rugby ball back. I have another muggle born friend who was teaching me the difference between American football, English football and Rugby."

Then, with a grin, he ran off.

"Ok, time to learn." Rose snapped her fingers in Scorpius's face. "Orchideous." Rose muttered the incantation and successfully wrapped a wreath of pink roses around Scorpius's legs. She then charged off to the empty classroom remembering the tray of biscuits she hoped were still in there.

Scorpius rolled his eyes and tried to hop after her.

The next few hours were spent with Rose repetitively demonstrating the incantation to Scorpius, there was a huge pile of flowers and wreaths almost as high as the table. Scorpius eventually managed to produce tiny individual daises but Rose wouldn't let him give up until he had made one long, continuous daisy chain. Once he achieved that, he got cocky and excited to do more. So rose taught him how to do complicated wreaths with multiple flowers. Finally, he made a wreath he was happy with. They both started eating biscuits and seeing who could hook a wreath around the dusty candelabra on a shelf in the corner of the room.

"Can't wait to give this to Albus." Scorpius grinned as he held up a very neat wreath of lilies. "Maybe I'll attach it somewhere permanently on him."

"Oh, Merlin, I can just imagine Lily's smug face. She would never let him drop it and she would embarrass him so much with the whole 'naww my brother's so cute' act."

They laughed together and ended with a sigh. Scorpius, still smiling looked at Rose.

"This is nice, I'm glad we're able to get long. I guess the headmaster was kind of right on Valentine's Day."

Rose's smile disappeared and she just nodded as she hopped up to sit on a table.

Scorpius hesitated, he leant against the far wall and stared intently and Rose's face before he dared himself to ask. "Do- do you think we can go back to being friends?" his voice wobbled slightly, he was irritated at himself for sounding so nervous.

Rose seemed to hold her breath.

"No." she said in an almost whisper, then cleared her throat. "I never truly felt like you trusted me enough to have a lasting friendship. And when my opinions stopped mattering to you-"

"But, look, for the past four hours we managed to get along just like old times!" Scorpius interrupted Rose. He wished he hadn't, Rose sent him a scowl.

"I can't be sure that you won't do the same thing again if I suddenly get close to someone you don't like. I know Felix was wrong for me, but what you did was worse than any poorly chosen boyfriend. I can't be made to feel excluded and untrustworthy and like a burden to someone who claims to be a friend! I will admit, that to Albus at least, you are a great friend. But for some reason, I seem to be different and I don't like it." Rose looked at the floor and swung her legs back and forth.

Scorpius could have sworn that he saw tears threaten in her eyes. He looked away.

"Thanks for the help with the incantation." Scorpius truly meant it, but his voice was monotone and he sounded insincere.

Rose's head snapped in the opposite direction as Scorpius moved towards the door, he figured that his suspicions about her trying not to cry were true and he turned away so that he wouldn't see. Scorpius knew that Rose hated crying, she hated feelings that made her cry too, and worst of all, people who made her cry.

"I'll see you in the corridor for our next argument then." Scorpius mumbled as he closed the door and slowly made his way back to the Slytherin common room.

"Yep." Rose whispered when she heard the door shut.

Rose suddenly jumped off the table in frustration and paced up and down the room muttering angrily to herself. "Stop crying! Stop it! He's not worth it. The loss of his friendship and any hope of ever being friends, is not worth pathetic tears!" Rose stopped in the middle of the room and looked down at the pile of flowers she and Scorpius had produced using the Orchideous incantation, with a hasty flick of her wand a bluebell flame set the pile alight then she quickly put it out.

Rose made sure her eyes weren't puffy, although she hadn't actually cried, then flung the door open to go back to her dorm. She stumbled and fell over something on her way out. A wreath of red roses was neatly placed against the door with a note attached, at least it was neat until Rose had tripped. The note simply read.

Thanks Weasley.

Rose let out a shaky sigh and slipped the note into her pocket and carefully carried the wreath to her dorm hoping that no one saw, they might start asking questions. Rose was lucky that the common room was empty apart for a few first years who didn't take any notice of Rose as they were too busy arguing over the rules of quidditch with open Herbology textbooks in front of them, they were obviously getting distracted. When Rose was halfway up the stairs to her dormitory, she heard many loud voices entering the common room behind her. Students were back from their Hogsmeade trip. She shoved the wreath into her trunk and slid it back under her bed. Rose only just managed to get her book out and look as though she had been there the whole time, when Anna walked in the dorm in a huff.

Anna angrily shook off her coat and threw it on her bed, she didn't even see Rose. Anna flopped on her bed and made a growling sort of sound.

"Umm, Anna?" Rose spoke cautiously.

Anna sat up with a start and looked as though she was going to scream. "Merlin! Rose you made me jump! How long have you been in here?!"

Rose shrugged. "I was in the library for most of the day, only really got back to the room myself." Rose kind of told the truth. "Anything you want to talk about?" Rose felt impelled to say despite herself. She was only trying to be polite.

"Not with you." Anna mumbled more bitterly than she meant. "Sorry," she grunted, "It's just been a confusing and aggravating day."

Rose nodded even though Anna couldn't see. She had to agree with Anna there.

Rose ended up hearing what happened to Anna at Hogsmeade as they all sat down to dinner, as Anna spoke as loudly and as quickly as usual. She was annoyed because, that despite all her flirting, Albus still didn't seem to notice her and that he was more interested in the 'friendless Ravenclaw', referring to Katie Webb.

Anna seemed to think that Albus and Katie were dating, when in fact they were just friends. People were so used to seeing Katie on her own, that when she actually did have a friend they assumed it was something else.

When everyone sitting near them at the Gryffindor table had gone, Rose told Lily about her day with Scorpius.

"He made you cry again?" Lily was a mix of disbelief and pity. She herself, Rose's own cousin, had barely seen Rose cry whereas Scorpius had seen her cry three times and made her cry once before.

"No, no I didn't cry!" Rose defended herself. "I said I almost did, the key word is almost."

Lily rolled her eyes and smiled. "And let me guess, you did that ting where you started pacing and told yourself off for even thinking about crying?"

Rose nodded. "I tell you too much."

"No you don't." Lily put a comforting hand on Rose's crossed arms. "I like that I have a cousin I can share everything with and I know shares everything with me. 'Cause with friends, you can tell them stuff but you never know if they'll remain your friend forever. But a cousin is someone you can't get rid of."

Rose laughed. "And this is why I tell you stuff, you make me feel better."

"Just doing what I do." Lily grinned and open her arms proudly. "Right, I need to go back to the common room. Hugo promised to help me with that Herbology essay. He's weirdly good at that subject."

Rose once again found herself in the staircase leading to her dormitory when she heard voices. She heard Anna talking very loudly, and by the sound of what she was saying, it was not a conversation Rose was meant to be hearing. So she decided it was best not to suddenly burst in. It would be too awkward.

"-got it all wrong. I'm not saying that I hate her, because I really don't. I just don't get why you guys suddenly hang around her so much now. It used to be just the three of us! Now she's always around."

"I don't get what your problem is!" Rose recognised Phil's voice. "Rose is nice to you and we always try to include you in everything we do, but you run off with Robin or start pining over Albus."

Anna scoffed. "That's another thing! She always makes it so obvious when I talk about Albus that she is bored of me."

"I don't think she's bored, I just think that she'd rather not talk about what you find attractive about her cousin." Mel's small voice spoke up in defence.

"You guys have just ditched me for some walking red bush with a know-it-all cockiness. It's ridiculous, I'm better than her! Even Mae Blinston agrees! Why would you ditch me?" Anna was sounding more and more whiny. Rose almost wanted to burst in just so Anna would feel guilty.

"Anna!" Mel squeaked in astonishment.

"You started hanging out with us less and less before we hung out with Rose. Don't blame us! Plus, Rose is great. Yeah, sometimes I feel dumb around her because she's some sort of super brain. But she's also really kind and is always happy to help us. Even you Anna, she would help you if you asked." Phil said.

"Look, I just started hanging out with Robin because, because- I don't have to justify myself to you!" Anna seemed to have confused herself.

"Well, we're not justifying our friendship with Rose to you! She's nice, we share a dorm, we're in most of the same classes, she's funny and she is always polite to you even if you're not!" Phil seemed to be getting louder as she spoke more proudly about her friend.

"Just try to be nice." Mel pleaded. "If you can't stand to be around her for too long, then just stop hanging around with us. It's not that we don't want you there- and we'll understand that you are still our friend-, but you get on better with Robin and-"

"And Rose is now really part of our little group. We don't want to loose her." Phil finished Mel's sentence.

"Ugh fine." Anna let out an exasperated sigh. "I can do civil and polite, like I said, I don't hate her. I just don't get on with her as well as you guys do. She's more of a mutual acquaintance." Anna paused. "You do realise though, as soon as she and Malfoy make up, she's just going to ditch you."

Rose felt herself clenching her fists.

"I don't think she and Malfoy will ever be friends again." Mel sighed. "You're not there, Anna, when she and him fight. You get the feeling that there has been a real betrayal of friendship."

"Don't get on the wrong side of Rose." Phil added.

"But I think it takes a lot to get on her bad side." Mel defended Rose again.

"Yeah." Phil agreed. "And you're wrong Anna, even if they are friends again, Rose won't ditch us. She's almost as loyal as a Hufflepuff."

"I'm surprised that she isn't in Hufflepuff." Mel said thoughtfully. "I mean, she's loyal but Merlin forbid you get on her wrong side. All Hufflepuff traits."

"She's smart like a Raven claw too." said Phil.

"Speaking of! Me and Robin were in Honeydukes today and.." Anna changed the topic and started waffling on about something Robin said about some guy she had a crush on. Rose took this as a good time to go inside.

"Hey! Rose!" Mel excitedly interrupted Anna, who rolled her eyes and slumped in her bed. "Where were you?"

"Oh, I went to talk to Lils." Rose hopped into the bathroom to get changed.

When she came out, Mel and Anna were talking quietly and in hushed tones on Anna's bed and Phil patted her own bed to invite Rose to talk to her.

"You went to talk to Lily?"

Rose nodded.

"Anything you want to talk about with me? I know that you only go out of your way to find Lily if there's something important to talk about."

"Oh, it was nothing." Rose brushed her off, she turned her head to see that Mel and Anna had stopped talking. "I'm fine, Lily just wanted to talk about homework and stuff." Rose shot a look to Phil.

"Talk when the gossipers aren't around?" Phil barely whispered.

Rose gave a small nod.

 **END OF JUNE**

The exams were finally over and Albus lay by the lake on his stomach, his face full of grass. Scorpius and Mae were sitting next to him, the latter was talking his ear off. She was starting to get annoying but Scorpius seemed to be getting along with her fine, so Albus didn't bother to join in. Albus suddenly sat up as he heard a familiar giggle. He could see Rose walking past talking to Phil and Mel, Anna was rolling her eyes behind them.

"Hey!" Albus called to his cousin and left Scorpius with Mae.

"Oh, hey Al!" Rose grinned at him when he got closer.

Anna's mood suddenly changed, she went from being extremely bored to overly flirty.

"Why hello there Albus, funny seeing you here." Anna's voice was high pitch. It made them all cringe.

"Umm, we've been going to the same school for four years and we're in quite a few classes together. Why is it funny to see me?" Albus frowned in confusion. 'Is she a complete idiot?' Albus thought.

"I meant here, right now, talking to me. It's so nice of you to take the time to come and find me." Anna placed her hand on his arm.

Albus went slightly pink and awkwardly took a step back. "Umm, sorry but I was actually going to talk to Rose." he was embarrassed.

Rose held in the urge to laugh at Anna's clear annoyance and Albus's inability to recognise flirting.

"What can I do for you?" Rose took Albus away from her friends.

Albus shrugged. "Nothing, I just wanted to speak to you about the holidays-"

But before he could continue, Rose interrupted.

"Sorry Al, but I'm not going to the beach with your family this year."

"Because of Scorpius?"

Rose nodded. "I think your parents do very well at keeping the peace between you, James and Lily, but add me and Malfoy into the mix…" Rose shrugged. "They'd bloody tear their hair out."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Besides, I'll have a whole week without an annoying little brother in the house, I wouldn't miss that for the world!" Rose playfully punched Albus's arm. "Although mum has threatened me with some sort of summer activity club."

Albus chuckled. "Like what?"

"Not sure, but it's bound to be some sort of muggle club, which will be fun I guess. I know a few years ago I did this muggle sports club, I sucked at it, but it was fun. And then, one summer, mum made me and Hugo take dance lessons." Rose rolled her eyes at Albus's amused face. "Long story short, Hugo is surprisingly good at dancing and I am unsurprisingly bad."

Albus became jealous. "Muggle activity club! Rose! You have to tell me everything about it and write to me everyday!"

Rose laughed. "Sure Al."

 **SUMMER HOLIDAYS**

Hugo had finished packing for his week at the beach with the Potters, and was just saying goodbye to his parents when Rose came down the stairs.

"Hugo! Quick question before you go, have you seen my 'Alice in Wonderland' book?"

Hugo looked alarmed and spoke quickly in one breath. "No-I-haven't-you-must-have-lost-it-bye."

Rose suddenly looked menacing and dragged Hugo by his ear out the backdoor, ignoring their parents's confused faces.

"Ow ow ow ow ow! Rose! That hurts!"

"That's the point. Now where's my book?"

"Umm, about that. When I gave it to Scorpius, he mistook it as a gift to keep rather than borrow. And I felt so awkward that I just let him keep it!" Hugo then added quickly while racing back to the house. "Have a nice week! Bye."

"HUGO NEVILLE WEASLEY!" Rose shouted. But by the time she got into the house, he had disappeared into a puff of smoke into the floo network.

"Now, Rosie." Ron sat Rose down at the kitchen table. "Your mum and I have found the perfect activity for you this week."

'The dreaded activity clubs' Rose groaned inwardly.

"Honestly Ronald, activity is not the right word, she's not a child." Hermione then sat next to Rose. "We were just thinking that you might want to be an assistant to myself or your dad or someone else in the family. It would give you some great work experience."

Rose sat up straight, feeling very excited.

"But I must warn you, that helping your mum in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, would just mean paperwork rather than actually helping in the field."

Rose slumped a little, but she was still excited.

"And helping your father at the Weasley store headquarters, would just mean stacking shelves rather than actually gaining useful work experience." Hermione retorted.

Rose giggled a little at her parents little rivalry. "You know what, I'd love to work in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement." She smiled sympathetically at Ron. "Sorry dad, mum wins this one."

"She always wins." He mumbled under his breath.

Rose giggled again.

"That's because I'm always right." Hermione grinned.

"You're right." Ron stood and kissed Hermione, then added. "You're brilliant." before going into the living room.

"So, there is going to be another girl there at the same time as you, but she'll have her last day at the same time as your first day. Just one day of overlap but I hope the two of you can get along. Everyone likes her at the office."

"I didn't know someone was leaving your department."

"No no, she's just been helping for the week. That's what gave me the idea for your activity this week."

"How old is she?"

"You're age. Her father is an American who recently came here from France-"

"You've lost me." Rose stared blankly at her mum.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "We recently had a transfer to the Aurors office, an American man who lived in France with his French wife, who is half Veela, and their daughter recently came to England. Lovely family." she smiled.

"So… the girl is one quarter Veela?"

Hermione nodded.

"So… she's ridiculously beautiful like aunt Fleur."

Hermione shrugged. "I guess so."

Ron had obviously heard their conversation from the other room and shouted. "As you're grandfather says 'you should never go for looks alone'. Although I was lucky, your mother is beautiful, smart, kind, brilliant and scary."

"Oh, shut up Ronald." Hermione rolled her eyes and retorted. But her cheeks were red, obviously flattered by her husbands compliments. She added in a quieter and softer shout. "I love you too dear."

Rose mimicked gagging sounds. Hermione rolled her eyes once again and gently swatted Rose's arm.

"You'll fall in love one day Rose, and then you won't find this quite so sickly."

Rose laughed. "Anyway, this girl who is a quarter Veela and ridiculously beautiful, has she and her family permanently moved to England?"

"Yes, oh and I do hope you get along. She is going to be attending Hogwarts from September and she is a little nervous. I was-"

"-hoping that this 'coincidental' overlap day of both of our work experience would make us friends." Rose finished her mums sentence, knowing her plan.

"Well, miss smarty pants, yes. It's only one day that you have to be nice and it's just so that when she gets into Hogwarts, she has at least one familiar face."

"See! I told you our Rosie has your brains." Ron shouted from the other room again.

Rose beamed in delight.

"And I agreed with you!" Hermione defended herself. "Anyway, Ronald, if you will speak to us, at least have the curtesy to be in the same room!"

"Nope, that's all I wanted to say." Ron shouted back. They could almost hear the grin in his voice.

"Rose," Hermione turned back to her daughter. "Can you please be nice and try not to scare anyone. Just for one day?"

"Mum! I'm a nice person, I am and can be nice. And since when am I scary?"

Ron scoffed loudly from the other room. The women ignored him.

"It's just that, we get quite a few letters saying that you've hexed someone again or that you've had a screaming match in the corridors again."

"Just one person mum, I only ever do that to Malfoy."

"Your own cousins are wary about getting on your wrong side. Even dear Hugo is a little scared of you and he's known you his entire life!"

Rose sat up and grinned smugly. "He's my little baby brother, he should be scared of me. It builds character."

Hermione gave and exasperated sigh. "Well what about that boy in your first year?"

"Oh, well I only hovered objects around Finley's head because he was sleeping in class." Rose defended herself.

"And those girls in your second year?"

"They started it! And Mae only had horns for a few days."

"And those two boys in your third year?"

"Now they really deserved it. Neville can back me up on that one!"

"But this year has been your worst." Hermione was sterner now.

Rose shrank a little in her seat. "Alright! I promise to not scare anyone."

"Thank you." Hermione sighed with relief. "I'll get you up tomorrow around seven and we'll go together."

 **THE NEXT DAY**

Hermione and Rose were at least half an hour early for work. Rose rolled her eyes when she realised. There was no one else in the office, not even her mum's boss was in yet. At least Rose thought no one else was in yet until she heard someone quietly humming from a tiny office at the very end of a long hallway.

"Rose," Hermione said, she seemed a little stressed. "You're new office for the week will be at the end." She indicated to where the humming was coming from. "I'll be in to help you set up in about twenty minutes, at the moment though I have a few things to attend to."

"Sure mum, see you later." Rose smiled and slowly made her way towards the humming as Hermione rushed off in the opposite direction.

Rose soundlessly pushed open the door that was already ajar. She saw the most beautiful girl she had ever seen in her life. She had startlingly blue eyes and blonde, almost white, hair that shone as bright as the sun and had multicoloured highlights throughout. She wore an electric blue suit with a red t-shirt underneath. Rose could see under the desk that the girl wore grey boots with pink laces on her left boot and green on the right.

The humming stopped.

"Umm, can I help you with anything?" Her voice was warm and inviting.

Rose smiled to cover up her embarrassment, the girl had obviously noticed her staring. "Yeah-sorry-umm." She stuck out her hand. "I'm Rose Weasley, I'm here to start my week of work experience."

The girl positively beamed at Rose.

"Weasley! So you're Mrs Granger-Weasley's daughter! How exciting to meet you." She shook Rose's hand vigorously.

"Oh, yeah. I'm technically Granger-Weasley but I often find it easier just to go by Weasley. But can call me Rose." Rose blurted out and she had no idea why.

The girl just grinned "My name is Lunette Tinker."

"So my mum told me that you will be attending Hogwarts."

"Oh, yes." Lunette suddenly sounded very nervous and Rose could've sworn that her multicoloured highlights in her hair turned grey. "It was sad to leave Beauxbatons, but I always think it's best to move boldly onwards and unafraid of toil."

Rose's smile grew. She instantly like this girl.

"Well, at least you'll know one friendly face. So, what have you been up to this week?"

Lunette, who's hair was back to being multicoloured, showed Rose around the office and Hermione barely had to check in for five minutes before Rose sent her away saying that Lunette had told her everything. Rose and Lunette got along famously. In their lunch break Rose told Lunette all about the Hogwarts houses and classes while Lunette told Rose about herself and her life in France.

"My grandmother is a Veela from Bulgaria, she moved to France and married my French grandfather. So my mother had lived in France her whole life but is half Bulgarian and Veela."

"So where's your mixed accent of French, American and Bulgarian?" Rose asked.

"Well, my father was always at work and my mother was always looking after my grandmother and was hopeless at English so they hired and Englishman to teach me the language. I guess I picked up his accent. My father is American and a Metamorphamagus, which comes in handy for his work-"

"Oh," realisation suddenly dawned on Rose. "That's why your highlights keep on changing colours. You're a Metamorphamagus too."

Lunette grinned, her hair turned bright pink and her face morphed into a cat with blue whiskers. "Yeah, I think being a Metamorphamagus has helped my accent somehow." She hesitated before speaking again. "I'm worried people might think I'm a freak."

"Are you kidding?! People will think your so cool!" Rose gently nudged her, "And if you stick with me, no one will pick on you."

Lunette suddenly looked quite alarmed, her face returned to normal and her hair turned firetruck red. Rose laughed.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not a bully or anything. It's just that I have one specific rival and we often have duals in the corridors. People know not to get on the wrong side of me." Rose remembered to add, "No on ever gets hurt! These duals are more spiteful and harmless hexes just to wind each other up. Plus, my cousins are always on my side, and there are a lot of them."

Lunette sighed in relief and her hair changed back to normal.

"I'm sorry, I interrupted you." Rose shook her head. "You were talking about your American father."

"Oh yeah, well he was traveling the world after he quit his job in America, he met my mother and they soon married so he just stayed in France."

"You know, my Aunt Fleur is a quarter-Veela. And she went to Beauxbatons."

"Oh yes, I know about her. Our headmistress Olympe Maxime often speaks of Fleur Delacour and her bravery in the Battle of Hogwarts. I understand that her children attend Hogwarts too?"

"Yep, Fleur married my uncle Bill. They have Victoire who left Hogwarts about four years ago, she's now married and has a kid on the way. And then there is Dominique who has just finished her fifth year and Louis who has just finished his first year, they are both in Hufflepuff."

"Wow. Thank you Rose, you've really made me feel more at ease with this whole moving to a new school."

Hermione waited until both she and Rose had just entered the house to ask her about her first day.

"It was great mum, she's really nice."

"Oh that's wonderful!"

Hermione was in a terrific mood for the rest of the day. Ron noticed as soon as he got home and raised his eyebrows in question to Rose.

"Her plan worked and I'm friends with the new girl." Rose offered as an explanation.

Ron just nodded and smiled. "Oh Rosie, we forgot to tell you this morning-"

"What?"

"Let me finish. I was saying that we forgot to tell you, Teddy has a surprise for you and all your cousins."

"What's the surprise?" Rose was grinned.

Hermione laughed. "There is no way we are going to tell you. It's Teddy's surprise and he's very excited for you all to find out."

Rose looked at her parents suspiciously. "But you guys know?"

They nodded.

"So I'm guessing that none of my cousins know except Victoire but all my aunts and uncle and grandparents know?"

They nodded again.

Rose flopped onto the sofa and grumbled. "I'm never going to be able trick anyone into telling me am I?"

Ron just laughed. But hermione was shocked.

"Rose Minerva Granger-Weasley! You don't trick people into telling you things do you?"

Rose raised her eyebrows. "Just my cousins and Hugo, I know their weak spots and after knowing them for fifteen years, I have a lot of dirt on them. Secrets don't stay secrets for very long if I want to find out."

"What kind of dirt do you have on them?" Ron was intrigued and Hermione hit his arm.

"No dad, if I tell you, I'll loose all my credibility as a secret master and blackmailer." Rose smirked

"Oh, and we wouldn't want to tarnish the reputation of a blackmailer." Hermione huffed and walked out of the room. Ron just laughed again and Rose sat smugly reading her book.

 **HUNSTANTON**

"Hey, I got a letter from Rose." Albus grinned when the owls came with the post that morning.

The Potters, Hugo and Scorpius were two days into their camping holiday at the beach. Scorpius subtly rolled his eyes at Albus's announcement. They were all sitting around the breakfast table, the smell of coffee, orange juice and burnt toast hung in the air.

Albus continued when he saw that his family were interested as to what the letter said. "She's doing work experience with Aunt Hermione and, wow, she made a new friend."

Hugo huffed and crossed his arms. "I've been gone for two days and she hasn't written to me at all, I'm only her brother."

"Yeah, well maybe that's because she's in a mood with you because you gave away her favourite boo-" Lily stopped herself and looked at Scorpius startled. Her spoonful of cereal halfway to her mouth.

Hugo elbowed her in the stomach and Lily's spoon dropped back in the bowl, spilling it all over Harry's toast.

"Thanks Lil" Harry sighed with a small smile on his face.

Ginny flicked her wand and cleaned up the mess. Lily and Hugo excused themselves, having a muttered argument that no one else could hear apart from the odd word while they washed up their breakfast cutlery. Scorpius watched them suspiciously and he planned to get the truth out of Hugo sometime soon.

"Oh, Teddy has a surprise for you guys and your cousins." Harry announced.

"Ooh! What is it?" Lily bounced up to Harry.

"A surprise." Ginny answered for him. The couple shared a smug smile.

"No way, you have to tell us!" James insisted.

"Who's Teddy?" Scorpius muttered to Albus.

"Teddy Lupin, my dad's godson. But he's always been practically family and then became actual family when he married my cousin Victoire."

Scorpius nodded in understanding. Albus, Hugo Lily and James begged their parents to tell the surprise but Harry and Ginny wouldn't budge.

"I was thinking we could go up to the funfair today, then there's going to be a bonfire later this evening." Ginny spoke up and changed the subject as the children were scattered around the tent.

He was greeted with grunts of agreement and nodding of heads.

"But that means best muggle behaviour for all of you." Harry warned.

As they walked up to the town Harry explained some ground rules and Scorpius listened intently where as Albus, Lily and James, who had heard these rules hundreds of times, only rolled their eyes.

"Do not say anything like 'Merlin's beard!' or 'Merlin's pants!' if you really must say something, say 'oh my god'. Muggles have no idea who Merlin is. Another rule, you guys go to a…" Harry waited for one of his children to finish the rule.

"A tiny boarding school in Scotland called ." Albus said in a bored monotone voice.

Ginny tried to hide her chuckle.

"Good. And if anyone asks what your favourite subject is?"

"We change the subject or say 'oh sorry, I just remembered I have to tell my brother something' or something on the lines of that." Lily rolled her eyes

"Well done, and the same goes if there's a question you can't answer. Now, everyone left their wands in the tent right?"

They all grumbled a yes.

"Now, me and Harry aren't going to the bonfire. So we want Hugo and Lily back around nine, it's still light out around then. But Albus, Scorpius and James, you can all stay out until ten if you want." Ginny said.

Finally Harry and Ginny were satisfied that they were ready and they arrived at the funfair. Scorpius was very excited, he always was when the Potter's took him with them to muggle events, although the bonfire later that night was new to him. The only bonfires Scorpius had ever really heard about were in History of Magic when witches and wizards were hunted and burnt. The thought scared him a little.

Ginny and Harry gave the children money and then left them to themselves. James turned to Scorpius.

"Another rule, if anyone asks. we're all friends and we don't dislike Scorpius because he was a crappy friend to our cousin." said James, then he walked off by himself to an ice-cream parlour.

Lily nodded seriously and Hugo and Albus just looked awkwardly at each other. Hugo and Albus were the only ones who still talked to Scorpius, the rest of Rose's family had taken her side, they didn't hate Scorpius but they didn't talk to him.

Lily dragged Hugo off to go on a ride and left Albus and Scorpius to wander around on their own.

After some time Scorpius spoke. "So, I guess your cousins really hate me thanks to my rivalry with Weasley."

"Hate is a strong word, they certainly don't hate you. My cousins have just taken Rose's side and so they're trying to ignore you. But that's hard for Lily and James to do when you're my best friend."

"And Hugo is going against all odds and being nice to me?"

Albus smiled. "He actually really wanted to be your friend before the whole rivalry with Rose happened. But rest assured, Rose scares us all enough that if she really didn't want us to be friends with you, we wouldn't."

"So she doesn't mind that her own brother and her favourite cousin are close friends to her enemy?"

"I guess not." Albus shrugged then dragged Scorpius to the biggest ride he had seen so far.

After a few hours, it was time for lunch and Scorpius and Albus got off a disappointingly slow rollercoaster to go and get food. Scorpius was annoyed that the rollercoaster wasn't that good but Albus looked as though he had just been on the ride of his life.

"Amazing!"

"Really? I thought it was boring compared to the one that dropped straight down." Scorpius said after swallowing his first chip, he thought the food was amazing.

"Not the ride, the girl I saw sitting opposite us."

Scorpius thought back. He and Albus were facing forward and two girls were facing them in a four seater carriage. Albus and Scorpius were bored so they talked to each other, but neither of the girls seemed to know each other is neither spoke. One was definitely younger than them and the other was a pretty blonde with multicoloured streaks in her hair. Scorpius had to agree that the colourful haired girl was very pretty.

Albus wouldn't stop going on about her and his food was getting cold. Eventually Lily and Hugo joined them. Lily was annoyed at her brother's nonstop chatter about some girl he saw, so she stuffed a load of chips in his mouth to shut him up.

"So what's her name?" Hugo asked.

Albus wasn't listening, he was staring off into the distance. Hugo laughed and Lily rolled her eyes. Hugo then asked Scorpius the same question.

"No idea, we didn't speak to her."

"Merlins beard!" Albus exclaimed under his breath then hid his head under the table, pretending to tie his shoe laces.

Scorpius, Hugo and Lily looked over to where Albus had been staring. The multicolour haired girl was coming their way.

"Umm, excuse me, but I believe your friend dropped this earlier." The girl said boldly and held out a tiny moleskin pouch for Albus, who was still hiding under the table. The girl looked at him skeptically. "Is your friend ok?" She cautiously asked Lily.

Lily grinned. "He's my brother, he's an idiot."

The girl smiled back. Albus suddenly lifted his head up, banging it on the table as he went.

"Ow! I'm not an idiot Lily." Albus rubbed the back of his head where he had hit it.

This time the girl tried to hide her smile.

"Maybe idiot isn't the right word, maybe just painfully awkward." Hugo tried to make Albus look better. His cousin sent him a grateful look in reply.

"Oh, I think this is yours." The girl finally gave Albus back his moleskin pouch.

Albus turned a bright shade of red as he mumbled a shy 'thanks'. The girl hesitated slightly before slowly turning away. Albus's eyes widened, he kicked Scorpius under the table.

"Ow! mate, why?" Scorpius muttered.

"You're Mr Manners, ask her name." Albus muttered back.

Scorpius rolled his eyes but still called after her. "Umm,"

The girl quickly turned around.

"Dreadfully sorry, but we never got your name. I'm Scorpius, this is my friend Albus, his younger sister Lily and their cousin Hugo."

The girl shook hands with each of them in turn apart from Albus who just chuckled, turned bright red and hit his forehead on the table in embarrassment.

"He's normally more articulate than this." Lily explained. "Our eldest brother James is also around here somewhere."

The girl smiled. "Cool, I guess I'll have to meet him another time. I'm Lunette."

"Are you coming to the bonfire tonight?" Hugo asked.

"As a matter of fact, I am. My mother is very excited to find out what a bonfire is." Lunette's eyes widened. "is-, is like- umm, here. She's- she's french and I- I umm, guess they do it a bit differently here. Er, ok. See you later." Lunette ran off, mortified at what she had said. 'Tu es complement débile' she told herself that she was a complete idiot. 'all muggles know what a bonfire is, now they'll think you're really weird.'

As it happened, the four of them only thought that her sudden departure was strange. They didn't notice her slip up which might have been obvious to a muggle.

"Perhaps she had somewhere to go." Scorpius offered as an explanation.

Albus still had his forehead on the table. "No, I must have put her off." He mumbled then grunted. "Hugo's right, I'm so awkward."

By that time Lily and Hugo had already run off to go on another ride.

"I've heard some girls at school say that you're charmingly awkward." Scorpius wanted nothing more than to cheer his best friend up.

Albus laughed and lifted his head up. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up mate. It's ok though, I'm used to girls not noticing me, Lunette will probably actively avoid me at the bonfire tonight."

"Don't worry, I'm sure that we will never see her again. There are thousands of muggles here, you probably won't have a chance to see her at the bonfire."

"You've got to stop saying 'muggle' so loudly."

Albus heard a familiar squeal and looked to his left. Lily, Hugo and James weren't too far away and he could hear his sister excitedly telling James that there would be fireworks at the bonfire. The two boys stood and put their newspaper, which had held their lunch, in the bins. Albus wasn't looking where he was going and collided into the back of someone. She fell hard on the ground.

"Sorry! Sorry! That was my fault!" Albus quickly blurted and stuck his hand out to help the girl up. He squinted as the sun was in his eyes and did not see that it was Lunette until she had jumped up and tried with all her might not to laugh.

"It's alright." her attention was drawn to someone behind Albus, she waved and hurried off, not without calling back to Albus. "Bye."

Albus hit his forehead with his palm. "The universe hates me."

Scorpius rolled his eyes and held in a laugh. "The universe does not hate you."

Once they got into a queue for a ride, Albus continued his proof that the universe hates him.

"Just look at it, I'm fifteen years old, most guys have had crushes and girlfriends, but I never really have."

"You went out with the friendless Ravenclaw once." Scorpius shrugged.

"Don't call her that, her name is Katie. But that was so awkward and didn't work out because I'm so awkward! And Rose told me that Anna had a crush on me for a while and I never picked up on it. another piece of proof that the universe hates me."

"How is that proof?" Scorpius scoffed.

"I'm not blessed with the 'gift' of picking up hints. Apparently my dad was the same, well according to my mum. Anyway, I've finally found a girl who I really like and I keep on making a fool of myself." Albus paused and thought for a second before he groaned. "Oh Merlin," he mumbled. "She found my moleskin pouch, she's a muggle and probably thought that I'm some creepy kid who carries around a furry wallet!"

Scorpius's eyebrows knit together. "Wait, I meant to ask about that pouch. Aren't they meant to be really rare?"

"Yeah, Hagrid gave every one of my cousins a moleskin pouch on our first day at Hogwarts. Well, not the first day, but the first time we visit him he gives us the pouch."

"Your family are really close to him?"

"Yeah, especially my siblings and Rose and Hugo, 'cause our parents were so fond of him. That's why we visit him most weeks."

"We've gotten off topic," Scorpius quickly changed the subject back. He had never felt very close to anyone except Albus and the usual feeling of envy was drawing near. Albus had so many people who loved him and who he loved while he had a tiny family who were rarely not arguing. "I still don't believe the universe hates you."

"I'm the odd one out in my family." Albus said bluntly.

Scorpius understood immediately. There was nothing he could say to this to make Albus feel better. Scorpius had tried in the past as the topic of Albus being put into Slytherin came up a lot, nothing ever made him feel better.

Albus sighed heavily. "Sorry, it's probably best not to get into that discussion right now. I'm trying to have fun at the beach with my best friend."

They finally reached the ticket booth and there was no need to talk. The young man at the ticket booth was possibly the most grumpy and bored person they had ever seen. His face had a permanent bored look on it, he chewed gum loudly and he leant on the tiny desk so lazily that he barely moved his arm to give and receive money. When the young man realised that Scorpius and Albus were staring at him, he glared at them and the two best friends hurried on to the ride.

As soon as they were off the ride Albus saw James and waved. James shook his head and went back to chatting up some girl who wouldn't stop flicking her hair and giggling. Albus rolled his eyes and as he did he saw Lily was also rolling her eyes. She had a habit of not liking any girl James dated but wouldn't admit her protectiveness.

By the time the bonfire started, Albus had put Lunette to the back of his mind and managed to enjoy himself. He and Scorpius chatted to group of muggles around their age and bought some popcorn from a stand.

"Hey, Al!" Lily came bouncing up to her brother. She was pumped full of sugar and so was very hyper. As was Hugo who skipped up next to her.

"They have hot chocolate and stuff over there!" Hugo pointed to a large table. "James bought a drink for some girl."

"Does she have a name?" Albus asked.

"Well I don't think James could remember her name so he sneakily let her introduce herself. And I don't think he was all that happy for us to talk to him while he's trying to be 'cool' and flirty. But I think he stopped minding when she told us her name. It was something like Naomi? or Natasha? or Nessy? is that even a name? maybe it would be if it was short for Vanessa, but that wasn't her name. or maybe it was Nathan?" Lily was waffling again. "Nathan? Is Nathan a girls name? Or is it unisex? like Ashley or Nick. Nick! Was Nick her name?"

"I thought it was Jenny." Hugo slipped in between Lily's waffling.

The sudden interruption started her and she stopped talking for a while.

Lilly shook her head. "Anyway, do you know what time it is?"

Albus turned to look at Scorpius who always carried around a watch with an 'S' on it for Slytherin. A present from his grandfather.

"It's 8;45pm."

Lily gave a begrudging 'thanks' to Scorpius and she and Hugo left to go back to the tent.

"We've got about an hour left, what do you want to do?" Scorpius asked as they stood watching everyone around the bonfire.

"Well, the fireworks should be going off in a minute or two. Shall I get us both a drink?"

"Sure, I'll be over here with these guys." Scorpius indicated to the group they had recently been talking to.

Albus got over to the drinks table. The young man there was the same grumpy teenager from the ticket booth earlier that day. he scowled at Albus and threw two bottles of cola at him.

"They're free." He grunted as Albus got his wallet out. "All drinks are free. But the fix ones have been shaken loads so open it away from me."

Albus smiled, said thank you politely and made his way towards Scorpius. He was almost there when a small and gentle finger tapped him on the shoulder, Albus spun around to see Lunette smiling at him. She was around the same height and even in the glow of the bonfire she was beautiful. Albus could have sworn that her hair was multicoloured earlier in the day, but now it was soft red orange and yellow, just like a fire. They seemed to glow and change like the themselves.

"Hi. It's Albus right? Remember me? I'm the girl you met earlier, I'm Lunette." She felt that she had to explain herself as Albus was just staring blankly at her.

Albus was so startled to see Lunette and that she was actually talking to him, that he dropped the bottles of cola. They rolled down the beach and he had to run and fetch them.

Lunette laughed a little. "So are you here at Hunstanton just for the day or are you camping somewhere?"

Before Albus could answer, both bottles of cola exploded in his face. Lunette jumped back and avoided getting herself covered while Albus just stood there embarrassed covered head to toe in cold and sticky cola.

"Umm, I'll see you later." Lunette looked sympathetically at Albus and quickly jogged away. She hadn't meant to be rude, only that she thought it was best to leave him as he was embarrassed enough.

Luckily, not too many people had noticed and even fewer laughed. Scorpius and James came running straight to Albus's aid. James was one of those who was laughing, but at least he was trying to help. They found him a towel and the three of them walked back to the tent. James holding Albus's shorts and Scorpius holding his t-shirt each at arms length away and only holding on to the dry parts.

"The universe hates me." Albus said dryly.

This time Scorpius couldn't help but agree.

The fireworks started and lit up the beach in front of them, in the distance they could see Harry, Ginny, Hugo and Lily sitting and watching the fireworks from outside the tent. Scorpius looked at James and Albus, laughing as James chased Albus with his own shorts and then he watched Harry put his arm around Ginny and Lily pushed Hugo lightly as they laughed together. Scorpius had to change his mind, the universe did not hate his best friend. Albus had a wonderful family who all loved each other. 'And I'm lucky to have him as a friend.' He thought to himself.

 **MALFOY MANOR**

When Scorpius used the floo network to get home through the kitchen fireplace, he was greeted by the sight of a very exhausted Petit cooking something over a hot stove. She was too small to reach the wooden spoon in the large pot, which was itself just as tall as her, so she was using a chair and standing on her tiptoes. She did not notice Scorpius. She was muttering in a high pitch voice to herself.

"Bad Petit, bad Petit. Must not burn the soup again. Master will not be happy, master will not be happy. Bad Petit, bad Petit."

Scorpius watched her curiously as he tried to make out what she was saying. Only when Petit took a hot empty tray out from the oven without oven gloves on and started hitting herself over the head with it, did Scorpius intervene.

"Bad Petit, bad Petit!" She repeated louder this time with each hit.

Scorpius ripped the hot tray out of her hands and through it on the table as he was also not wearing anything to protect him from the scold.

"Master Scorpius! You're back! Your mother will want to know," Petit smiled at him then started muttering to herself again. "tell miss, tell miss. Must not burn the soup again, must not burn the soup again. Master will be mad-"

"Petit!" Scorpius said quickly to grab her attention, he then knelt down in front of her. Petit stopped and looked like a dear caught in headlamps. "Why were you hitting yourself?"

Petit's voice became even squeakier as she whined. "Petit left the soup for too long and burned the pot. Master saw and shouted at Petit. Dinner is an hour late." Petit sniffed. "Petit had to punish herself."

"Petit," Scorpius filled with sympathy, "You shouldn't harm yourself. I'm sorry about my grandfather. Can I help you with anything?"

Petit sniffed again. Her eyes widened and ran to the chair and pulled herself up to look over the pot and into the soup. "The Soup!" She almost shouted in worry. But she sighed with relief as soon as she saw that it was ok.

Scorpius looked around the kitchen to see if there was anything that needed to be done. He soon busied himself preparing cutlery and plates to be taken to his grandparents and arranged them on two large black trays with sliver handles decorated with intertwined snakes.

"Thanks you master Scorpius." Petit noticed that he was helping.

"Anytime Petit, just ask and I'll come running."

Petit only nodded. A timer went off and her head shot to look at the oven then she looked horridly over to the soup again and back and forth she looked from the pot to the oven.

"I'll get it." Scorpius smiled and opened the oven, two bread rolls were warming in the oven and he quickly popped them on the plates.

Scorpius had been home almost three hours before anyone else in the Manner knew other than Petit. The house elf took the tray on food to his grandparents and then sat and talked to Scorpius as he made and ate his own dinner.

"Scorpius!" Astoria was surprised to see her son sitting happily at the table in the kitchen. "Dear, when did you get in? Why didn't you come and find me?"

"Sorry, I got a bit carried away." he looked at Petit was had just started washing up.

"Alright," Astoria sighed. She looked over by the fireplace and saw Scorpius's bags. She flicked her wand and they flew up to his room. "It's getting late, why don't you say hello to your father and then go to bed. We can have a nice chat about your holiday over breakfast. Does that sound good?"

"Great. Thanks mum." Scorpius yawned and went around looking for his father. Her eventually found him in the library across the hall from his own room. "Dad?" Scorpius gently called.

Draco had fallen asleep in a car in front of the large windows while reading alchemical manuscripts. He suddenly woke up and squinted and Scorpius. "Is that you son?"

"Yeah, hey dad. I was going to say hi and then go to bed."

"Very well, goodnight. I'll see you in the morning and we can have a proper conversation then." Draco packed up his manuscripts and exited the library with Scorpius.

When Scorpius closed the library door, he was surprised to see Astoria smiling at him in the hallways. Draco wrapped one arm around her waist and why both grinned at him. Scorpius looked at them suspiciously but decided to drop it as he was tired.

Once in his bedroom, Scorpius found a letter from Hogwarts sitting neatly on his bed. He opened it and read the neat handwriting showing that he had passed all his exams with Os for Outstanding. He grinned and thought it best to wait until morning to tell his parents the good news. Scorpius placed the letter back on his bed before realising that there was a second letter behind it and something heavy in the envelope.

Dear Mr Malfoy,

We are pleased to inform you that been selected to serve as Prefect for Slytherin house. Your school record shows that you have ambition, the ability to lead others and are resourceful, which Slytherins have long been lauded for.

We are certain that you will continue to be a model for your peers and will take your new responsibilities seriously. Enclosed please find you Prefect Badge, to be worn on your robes at all times. Congratulations!

Head Master

Scorpius grinned for ear to ear and couldn't help himself doing a little dance around his room. This could not wait until morning, Scorpius burst out of his room to find that his parents were still standing in the corridor staring at his door.

"You knew?" Scorpius hurried out.

"The letter was heavier than usual. We guessed." Draco smiled proudly.

"Well done by little Prefect!" Astoria cried and hugged her son.

 **GRANGER-WEASLEY HOUSE**

"Hugo!" someone called cheerfully to him as he landed into the fireplace into the living room. He looked around but no one was there, he then found them all in the kitchen eating dinner with one empty place setting specially for him.

"Hey guys." Hugo kissed Hermione on the cheek and hugged Ron before piling rice onto his plate. "So how's everything been at home? Did you all miss me."

"Of course we did sweetheart." Hermione rubbed his shoulder.

"It's good to have another man in the house." Ron winked cheerfully at Hugo.

Rose only shrugged.

"Rude!" Hugo accused Rose.

Rose ginned. "It was nice being an only child but it's still nice having you back."

"Thanks. Oh, did my letter come though? Lily Albus and James got their but me and Scorpius never did."

Rose and Ron couldn't help but grit their teeth as they heard Scorpius's name. But neither said a word. Hermione handed Hugo his letter, the boy ripped it open and smiled. He had gotten A for acceptable in all of his exam except Herbology where he got an E for exceeds expectations.

"How did your exams go?" Hugo turned to his sister.

Rose nodded as her mouth was full. once she stalled she smiled at him. "And I'm a Prefect!"

"Shoot, now James and Lorcan won't be able to do any pranks without getting detentions or losing points. You always know when they're got a prank coming."

Rose only shrugged but she had a sneaky smile. "I don't always know. Besides, if they tell me about a prank, I will never know if they're telling the truth unless it is actually done right in front of my nose."

Hugo grinned. Rose knew that everybody loved James and Lorcan's pranks, just as long as they weren't caught up in them. Rose herself always found the duo amusing and so she wasn't going to stop the fun, Prefect or not, just as long as nobody got hurt or in danger.


	5. Chapter 5 FIFTH YEAR

I AM PRETTY NEW TO WRITING FANFICTION AND THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE READ THIS FAR. THE STORY I THINK YOU MAY RECIEVE EMAIL UPDATES WHEN I WRITE A NEW CHAPTER.. I UNDERSTAND THAT THE FIRST FEW CHAPTERS WEREN'T GREAT BUT NOW I FEEL LIKE THEY'RE REALLY IMPROVING. PLEASE SEND ME FEEDBACK, IT IS MUCH APPRECIATED. PLEASE DON'T BE MEAN. I'M SORRY THIS TOOK A WHILE, I'VE BEEN TRYING REALLY HARD TO MAKE IT GOOD ENOUGH. I JUST STARTED UNIVERSITY AND SO THESE CHAPTERS MAY TAKE A WHILE TO COMPLETE. THANK YOU SO MUCH READERS, I'M GLAD WE CAN ALL BOND IN THE WONDERFUL WORLD THAT IS HARRY POTTER 19 YEARS LATER. HOPE YOU LIKE IT!

 **FIFTH YEAR. 23 YEARS LATER**

 **GRANGER-WEASLEY HOUSEHOLD. TRYING TO LEAVE FOR PLATFORM 9 3/4**

"Mum, have you seen my badge?" Rose shouted from upstairs.

Hermione was frantically trying to calm Rose's owl down so that she would go in her cage, but as Hermione herself was stressed, the owl was not compliant.

"Hermione." Ron gently said behind her but Hermione ignored him. "Hermione!" he called louder this time.

"What?!" She snapped. As soon as she did, Hermione sighed and apologised. "Sorry, I just always get so stressed. Why can't they be ready the night before? I always make them pack early but they always forget _something_ and the house goes wild!"

"Why don't you help Rosie and I'll try and get Pocket into her cage?"

"You know Rose gets as stressed as I do, this is _not_ a fair swap." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Yes, but Pocket likes my calming influence. Rosie needs someone to stress with her, _she_ gets more stressed because _I'm_ not stressed, apparently." Ron shrugged in bewilderment.

"How are you not stressed?!" Hermione panicked.

"We're always early. Your definition of 'late' is not leaving an hour early! We have loads of time."

Hermione huffed and charged up the stairs to Rose's room. "What is it?"

"My badge, I can't find it!" Rose's legs were the only part of her that Hermione could see as Rose was searching under her bed.

"What badge?" Hermione was lost.

"My prefect badge!" Rose said proudly and bumped her head. "Ow." she slowly slid out from under the bed and knocked over the stack of books that had been delicately balanced on the bed.

"On the kitchen table," Hermione remembered. "You might have to move around Hugo's stuff to find it." Hermione hugged Rose and smiled. "I'm so proud of my little prefect."

Rose chuckled. "Thanks-"

But she was cut off by Hugo shouting. "Mum, have you seen robes?"

Hermione was alarmed and shouted back. "How could you loose all your robes?! Why didn't you keep them packed in your trunk?! I only put them there yesterday!"

"Oh," Hugo was a little quieter. "Never mind, I found them."

Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Wait," Rose couldn't help but laugh slightly before shouting at her brother. "Where did you find them?"

"It doesn't matter!" Hugo said quickly.

Hermione gave a questioning look to Rose. Rose laughed again. "That means he found them in his trunk, exactly where you put them last night."

But Hermione was distracted by the pile of books that Rose had knocked over and was picking up then shoving them one by one in her trunk.

"I thought you packed all your books yesterday?"

"I did, but then I woke up early-"

" _You_ woke up early?" Hermione scoffed in disbelief.

"Yes I did! Because I thought I didn't have enough books."

"Ok, I think the owls are ready to go and so is Hugo." Ron shouted up the stairs.

"Merlin!" Hermione shouted in alarm. "We're so late!"

The Granger-Weasley family were finally out the door, half an hour early.

 **PLATFORM 9 3/4**

Rose spotted Lunette over the crowded platform and waved. Lunette waved back and grinned. Her hair, this time, was still blonde but her highlights were the colours of the Hogwarts houses. Green, blue, red and yellow-orange.

"Hi Rose!"

"Hey!"

"You're a prefect!" Lunette noticed Rose's badge. Both girls were already in their robes.

"Yeah! Sorry, I forgot to write. I love your hair, very suiting."

Lunette shyly fidgeted with one of her yellow-orange highlights. "Thanks, it's the only thing that would settle my nerves this morning."

Rose placed a comforting hand on Lunette's shoulder. "Any house would be lucky to have you."

"Oh! I read _Hogwarts A History_ like you suggested! Thank you so much, it was really interesting and I've found that, apart from the sorting, I'm more excited than terrified."

Rose smiled and hugged Lunette. "I'm sorry I won't be able to sit with you on the train, I've got to go to the prefect carriage. But I'll be patrolling the corridors so I can find you and check how you're doing."

Lunette was hugged by both her parents, Rose saw just how beautiful her mother was, lots of people were stopping and staring at her.

"Hey Rose!" Roxanne suddenly appeared at Rose's side. She was now in her sixth year with Dominique, James and Lorcan.

"Roxanne! Brilliant!"

"Umm, thanks?"

"Look, there's a girl here, Lunette, she recently moved from France and will be in my year. I'm the only person she knows here and I was hoping to find someone to sit with her on the train. And I can't find Albus."

Rose introduced her cousin to Lunette and the two got along well enough, although Lunette was a bit anxious of Roxanne's bounciness.

Lucy, the new Head Girl and Rose's uncle Percy's youngest daughter, found Rose and the two went to the prefect compartment together after Rose picked herself off the floor as she had tripped over someone's trunk.

"So, excited about being a prefect?" Lucy asked.

Rose laughed. "I think I should be the one asking the question. Lucy! You're the new Head Girl! How are you feeling?"

"To be honest, a little overwhelmed. Molly was excited for me, she even took a day off work to come and visit, mum and dad were proud, but I'm freaking out inside."

"You'll be great Lucy, I couldn't think of anyone better for the job."

Lucy smiled. "Thanks."

Rose was quite happily smiling until she reached the prefect carriage and saw who the other new prefects were.

Scorpius was sitting there staring out the window. The worst part was that next to him was the only spare seat. Rose angrily plonked herself next to him.

"Weasley." Scorpius grunted when he realised it was her.

"Malfoy." She acknowledged him. But Rose's smile came back when she saw the other prefects.

She only recognised a few of them. She knew two Ravenclaw prefects, in her year there was Daniel Leyton and in the year above there was a guy who was friends with Roxanne, Mosi Smith. Also in the year above was a Slytherin called Gregg Gully and the Gryffindor Lucile Pond who had gone out with James so many times and she was also the quidditch keeper. Fred, Rose's cousin in his seventh year with Lucy, was also there as the Gryffindor prefect. And the Gryffindor in her year who was chosen to be a prefect with Rose was Wesley Mclaggen. He winked at Rose. Rose looked away in indifference and directed her attention to Lucy who was just starting to read out the duties of the prefects.

Meanwhile, Albus was sitting in a compartment with James, Lorcan, Lily and Hugo. He couldn't help but feel a little lost without Scorpius and Rose.

"Al! there you are!" Roxanne hopped inside the compartment.

"Um, hey."

"Look, I've got a favour to ask. You know how most of my friends are guys? Well, Rose asked me to look out for a new girl who's in your year, but the guys are kind of developing crushes on her and their clumsy attempts at pickup lines are getting annoying. So I was wondering if she could sit in here with you guys?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." Albus felt a bit awkward.

"Thanks, I'll tell Rose. She said that she'll come down and chat to the new girl while she does her patrol."

Roxanne moved out of the door and let the new girl in. Lily, Hugo and Albus's jaws dropped. It was Lunette from the bonfire. Albus went a bright shade of red. Lunette was just as surprised to see them too.

"Merlin's beard!" Lily shouted with glee. "Al it's her! Wow! Hi! Remember me?" Lily bounced over to Lunette.

"Yeah, hi." Lunette smiled. "It's Lily, right?"

"Yeah! Wow, this is a small world. We thought you were a muggle."

Lunette laughed a little. "I thought the same thing about you guys." She then peered past Lily to see Hugo. "And you're Hough? Or Hugo? I'm sorry, I can't remember your name exactly."

Hugo grinned and shook her hand enthusiastically. "Hugo, nice to see you again."

"Thanks, you too. And of course, how could I forget Albus?" Lunette saved her biggest grin for the very bashful and awkward Albus.

"Wait," James cut in laughing. "Is this the girl you spilt cola all over at that bonfire? It's nice to finally meet you, I'm James, Albus's older brother. He won't stop ta-"

"James!" Albus whispered harshly.

Lunette then turned her attention to Lorcan who had a cocky grin on his face.

"Well, hello there. I'm Lorcan, a friend of James. I love your hair, it's captivating."

James and Lily snorted at Lorcan's flirting.

"Yeah, well since I'm going to be sorted with all the first years, I thought I might swell embrace it and wear all the house colours."

"My brother Lysander is being sorted today too. But I have no idea where he is now."

"Really!" James spoke to Lorcan. "Shoot, I didn't get to see him and wish him luck"

"That's alright." Lorcan smiled mischievously. "I've got an idea."

Lunette sat next to Albus who was quietly staring at his feet. "So Albus, it's nice to see you again."

Albus felt choked. He couldn't speak.

"Al?" Lily called, trying to get him to talk.

"What?" Albus shook his head.

Lunette smiled softly at him.

"Lunette! Here you are! I'm so glad you found Al." Rose suddenly appeared at the door with her fellow Gryffindor prefect, Wesley McLaggen.

"Rose! You're friends with Albus too?"

"Actually, Albus is my cousin, so is Lily and James. Hugo is my little brother."

Lunette's eyes widened in shock. "No way."

They all nodded.

Lunette laughed. "Do you remember me writing to you about a guy dropping a couple of bottles of cola and the it all spilling on me, well that was Albus. We met while I took a day trip with my family to Hunstanton."

Rose now joined in the laughter. "Al? Really? That was you?!"

Albus nodded sheepishly.

"Wait, but how do you know Lunette?" Lily was confused.

"We had a day overlapping our work experience at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, my dad's a new Auora." Lunette explained.

"Hi, I'm McLaggen. Wesley McLaggen." He pushed passed Rose, held out a hand for Lunette to shake and put on a charming smile. "I'm a Gryffindor prefect with Rose." he winked and held onto her hand. "It is such a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, hi." Lunette said pleasantly not knowing that Wesley was putting on his so called 'McLaggen charm' which he used to go out with girls. Even James found him a bit sleazy.

"Alright McLaggen." Rose forcefully yanked him away from Lunette. "We've got more corridors to patrol. See you later Lunette."

Once they were gone the carriage grew quiet. Lunette awkwardly sat next to an even more awkward Albus who was still red in the face. She twiddled her thumbs for a moment before deciding that she was going to have to be the one to speak.

"So, what house are you guys in?"

"We're all in Gryffindor." Lily answered. "Most of our family are, except our cousins Lucy, Dominique and Louis. Oh and Albus. Lucy is in Ravenclaw, we're all pretty proud to have another Weasley as Head Girl."

"What house are you in?" Lunette turned to Albus, desperate to get some conversation out of him.

"Oh, I'm in Slytherin."

The rest of the ride was spent in this fashion. It was mostly quiet other than the muttering conversations between Lily and Hugo and James and Lorcan. Lunette found that the only way to talk to Albus was to ask him question. And boy did she have a lot of questions. And Albus was all too happy, although a little awkward, to answer.

 **SORTING**

"Today we have a new person who will join our fifth years, so everybody give a warm Hogwarts welcome to Miss Tinker." Headmaster Fairweather stood and announced to the school in front of all the yet to be sorted first years.

Lunette turned slightly pink but waved back to Rose once they spotted each other in the hall. She even waved to Albus who only laughed and turned red, Scorpius sitting beside him noticed this.

"But before we get to the sorting, I would like to welcome a new member of staff to our lovely school. Professor Lupin, would you mind standing?"

Edward (Teddy to his friends and family) Lupin, son of Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin, stood and grinned at his new students. His hair was green and he showed off a little while the students were clapping by using his Metamorphmagus ability, changed his face from a snake, to a badger, a lion and an eagle while his hair changed colour rapidly.

Lunette looked at Rose with an expression of pure awe and amusement. She was glad to see that there was at least one other Metamorphmagus in the school. Rose had forgotten to tell Lunette that tiny detail.

"Professor Lupin will be our new defence against the dark arts teacher and professor Longbottom will take over the position of Herbology professor as dear Professor Dunkerly has left us."

There were gasps and whimpers around the room.

"No! She hasn't died!" Headmaster Fairweather had to clear up quickly. "She has retired to spend more time with her great-grandchildren. In fact, she still lives in hogsmeade and would be happy for any visits during the weekend trips."

Nobody, but the first years and Lunette, was surprised by this. Professor Dunkerly was very elderly and loved her students very much, her door was always open.

The Weasleys and Potters looked around at each other with big grins. So this was the big mysterious surprise that Teddy had for them all. There were all excited and looked forward to their defence against the darks arts lessons.

"Now, onto the sorting." Fairweather nodded to Longbottom who pulled out a piece of long parchment.

After the hat sang, Longbottom took his place next to the stool.

"Well, let's start with Tinker, Lunette."

Lunette took a deep breath and made her way towards the stool. The first years shuffled quickly out of her way, she was taller than all of them as she was four years older, and she stood out like a sore thumb.

"Well, well. This mind is older and a great deal wiser than any I've met with before. But you, my dear, will find no better home than Hufflepuff!" The sorting hat roared the name of the house and the table at the end of the hall stood to applaud, so did Teddy Lupin as it was once his house.

Lunette made her way on shaky legs to the Hufflepuff table and found herself sitting next to Dominique. Lunette found Rose again and gave her a thumbs up which Rose returned.

"Hi, I'm Dominique. I'm just a year above."

"You're Dominique Weasley?!" Lunette was amazed.

"Er, yes." She answered with a confused smile.

"It's great to meet you! I've heard all about your mother, she went to Beauxbatons! As did I and my mother."

They had to be silent as the sorting continued. Eventually it was Lysander's turn.

"Scamander, Lorcan." Longbottom called out with a smile.

The little version of Lorcan quickly made his way to the stool. He didn't seem as nervous as the rest of the first years, he was excited. He had a brother who was five years older than him and had grown up visiting the Weasleys and the Potters, he was the last to go to Hogwarts and he had been waiting for his sorting for ages.

"I never forget a mind or a head. I know your mother, your father and your brother. I even remember your grandfather." the sorting hat said quietly so that only Lysander could hear, then suddenly he shouted loudly, "Ravenclaw!"

The Ravenclaw table cheered and so did Lorcan and James, they even stood to applaud and shot blue sparks from their wands, which gained a few laughs around the hall.

 **SECOND WEEK**

Albus and Scorpius were quietly eating their breakfast at the Slytherin table. Albus was watching Lunette who sat on the Hufflepuff table with her new friends. They giggled and chatted together, Albus thought her smile was beautiful. A few guys went up to Lunette and flirted with her, she only smiled and waved them off as her friends giggled some more.

"So how's that crush of yours turning out?" Scorpius finally spoke.

"What?" Albus pretended not to know what he was talking about.

"Oh, come on mate, you can't expect me not to notice your constant staring at Lunette."

"I'm not staring, it's just that- that, umm, she's Rose's friend and she's new and I'm- er, keeping an eye on her. Making sure she's ok."

"You're such a bad liar. I know you have a crush on her, you even told me while we were on holiday. Besides, you're not alone. Most guys have a crush on her, just look around. Hathaway, McLaggen and Earls. Three Gryffindor guys who always sit on the Gryffindor table, are now crowded around her and trying to flirt. Earls even has a girlfriend!"

"Who?" Albus hadn't heard this piece of gossip yet.

"Not sure, I think it's Robin Stirling."

"Potter!" Someone shouted at Albus.

Both Albus and Scorpius started looking around the hall to find who it was. Gregg Gully, the Slytherin quidditch captain, was strutting towards them.

"Oi, Potter. Quidditch trial start tomorrow, I want to see you there." Gully said in such a demanding voice that Albus felt like he couldn't argue. Gully wasn't listening anymore so even if Albus had tried to explain his poor skills, Gully wouldn't have noticed. He looked Scorpius up and down. "How good are you on a broom Malfoy?"

Scorpius shrugged, Albus scoffed at his modesty.

"I heard your dad weren't half bad, not great, but not bad. I'll see you at trial too." And Gully strutted off again.

Scorpius looked at Albus with slight surprise. "So I guess we're going to quidditch trials tomorrow."

Albus shrugged. "I guess so."

Rose marched into the hall and scanned the tables. She saw Gully out of the corner of her eye and jumped in front of him.

"Gully! What are you doing? Where are you going?" Rose's stress was apparent

"Woah, calm down Weasley, I'm going! I'm just a bit late."

Rose glared at him until she was sure that he was headed in the right direction. Then she stormed over to the Hufflepuff table.

"Hey Rose!" Lunette greeted her with a smile.

"Hey, I'm sorry I can't talk right now." Rose angrily grabbed Wesley by the ear and dragged him away. "Wesley, I need you."

"Ow, ow. Rose, calm down. Look, I like you," his cockiness was irritating Rose "you're smart, funny, we're friends - kind of - and," he looked her up and down. "you're kind of pretty in a quirky sort of way. But your friend Lunette here is _hot,_ if you could just-"

Rose smacked him on the back of his head. "Just follow me. Mclaggen" She rolled her eyes.

Lunette looked alarmed. "Rose, I'm sorry-"

Rose managed a smile. "It's fine Lunette, we're good. But I'd watch out for twats like Wesley and Grant. I'll catch up with you later."

Wesley looked like a dog with his tail between his legs and followed Rose who took a deep breath and headed towards the Slytherin table.

"Malfoy!" she practically shouted in his ear.

"Merlin! No need to shout!" Scorpius covered his ear, he grumbled as soon as he realised who it was. "What the hell do _you_ want Weasley?"

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Rose said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, I'm sorry, do I owe you a morning smooch?" Scorpius asked sarcastically and leaned towards her with puckered lips. A few Slytherins around them laughed but one dark look from Rose shut them up. Albus was hiding a chuckle behind his mug of tea

"Only in your dreams Malfoy." Rose whipped out her wand and sent a bat-bogey hex at him. "Prefect meeting. Now. Actually it started ten minutes ago and I've been sent to find you lot who didn't turn up!" Rose shouted and glared. She took a deep breath. "Hi Al." She greeted her cousin who grinned in return.

Albus always found it amusing when Scorpius and Rose fought. Scorpius was trying to sort out his nose so Rose had to wait for him before going up to the joint Head Girl and Boy dormitory for the meeting.

"So how come you're looking for them and not Head Girl?"

Rose sighed. "Lucy is doing that thing where she pretends that everything is fine but really she's freaking out."

"Like she does every year when she makes herself a ridiculous revision plan."

Yep, anyway, I thought I'd help out. I mean, this is our first prefect meeting and three people didn't turn up."

"Well tell her that I think she can do it."

"Thanks Al, I'll tell her." Rose chuckled.

"No, I'm serious. She made it two weeks and hasn't screwed up! She's doing great."

This made Rose laugh.

"Ready Malfoy? Or do you need some help from someone who actually knows what they're doing?" Rose smirked.

Scorpius had finally stopped the flow of bats and glared at her.

They left and Albus was on his own once again. Lunette spotted this and joined him. Her friends looked confused as she left them without saying a word, Grant Hathaway and Sulli Earls looked disappointed.

"Hi Albus, are you ok?"

Albus immediately turned red. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. How- how- um- how are you?"

Lunette smiled at his sudden stutter. "I'm great."

"So, so how's Hufflepuff treating you?"

"It's great Albus, everybody is so nice there. And I've made a lot of friends in other houses too. Granted, you're the only friend I have in Slytherin."

"You could always hang out with me and Scorpius." Albus regretted the words as soon as they exited his mouth. Not because he didn't want Lunette around, it was just that his awkward levels arose to new heights, he began to stutter and he turned bright red whenever Lunette spoke to him.

"You know what, I'd love to. How about I come and find you guys at lunch?"

Albus couldn't believe it. Lunette Tinker, the prettiest girl in school, wanted to hang out with him.

"Well, er- um -I guess- i-if you want- sure!"

Lunette smiled again. She found him endearing.

"Hey, Lunette, can I speak to you for a moment?" a guy from Ravenclaw who Albus had seen in class every now and then but did not know the name of, interrupted their conversation.

"Oh, sure Nick. I'll see you later Albus." Lunette gave a small wave to Albus then walked out with Nick.

By the time lunch came around, it was common knowledge that Lunette was dating a Ravenclaw named Nick. Something deep down in Albus hurt like crazy. Rose and Scorpius were the only ones who noticed a difference in him.

Scorpius and Albus had finished their lunch and were leaving the hall when Lunette ran up to them.

"Where are you going? I thought we were going to hang out." Lunette looked a bit disappointed.

"Oh, yeah, but um- we- you - we thought that you-" Albus's voice was shaking so Scorpius finished for him.

"We heard that you're going out with Nick, congrats by the way, he seems really nice, anyway we thought you might want to spend the day with him and we can hang out another time."

Lunette nodded slowly. "Ok, but I'm going to hold you to that."

"Sure, we'll see you around." Scorpius smiled.

"I'll see you next lesson for defence against the dark arts."

"Sure Lunette, see you then."

"Bye Scorpius, it was nice to finally talk to you, even if it was only for a bit. And Albus, I'll see you later ok?"

Albus nodded and stared at the ground.

Rose was watching this from the Gryffindor table, she had stopped writing her homework and had completely ignored Mel. Rose stood and ran after Albus, she lightly grabbed his arm.

"Take a break Malfoy, I need to talk to Al."

Scorpius scoffed. "Get lost Weasley, he doesn't need _you_ here."

"I'm his cousin, arsehole." She flicked her wand and shouted. " _Steleus!_ "

Scorpius began sneezing repetitively and retaliated by giving Rose a fox tail. She scowled and prepared to send him another hex when Daniel Leyton came in-between them.

"Leave Rose alone!"

Scorpius laughed between sneezes. "You-" sneeze. "-need-" sneeze. "-a protector-" sneeze. "-now Weasley?"

Rose grit her teeth and stepped in front of Daniel, her face just inches from Scorpius, her new tail flicking with irritation. He managed to stop sneezing for a moment.

"You and I both know that I can handle myself. Get lost Malfoy. You may not have realised this, but family is pretty important and I need to talk to my cousin right now." She muttered with such authority and sincerity that Scorpius backed off. But not without using a trip jinx to make Rose fall flat on her face.

Rose took what she could get and walked away with Albus. Trying different spells to rid her of her tail as she went. "How are you feeling?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come one Al, I know it must hurt when someone you like goes out with another person."

"How would you know anything about how I feel?!" Albus couldn't help but be irritated.

"Well, I don't know exactly, but there was a guy I kind of liked and it hurt every time a girl flirted with him. It was like someone was punching me in the stomach."

"Who did you like enough for you to feel like that?"

Rose unwillingly thought of Scorpius when Mae was flirting with him and her ears turned red. "It doesn't matter." she said quickly. "But the thing is, it will pass eventually. You know what I do, I throw myself into my studies."

"Yeah, well, I'm not as smart as you Rose."

"So find a hobby, distract yourself and eventually you might start to like someone else." Rose gave him a hug and saw Scorpius making his way back to them. She neglected to tell Albus that she was pretty sure that Lunette and Nick wouldn't last long because Rose was pretty sure that Lunette had a crush on Albus. But that would only get his hopes up and if Rose was wrong, it would crush Albus even more.

"Move on Weasley, your protector is getting whiny." Scorpius glared at Rose until she left them.

"Rose, hi." Daniel caught up with Rose who was trying to go back to the hall to apologise to Mel for leaving halfway through their conversation. "Look, I was just trying to stand up for you, but I didn't want to see you hurt."

Rose scoffed. His apology didn't sound like an apology. He sounded more like he was defending himself.

Rose had ancient runes with Ravenclaws, they were making notes. Daniel took Phil's usual seat next to Rose and began talking to her. To her surprise, Rose didn't find him as painfully dull as usual. Instead she found that they both had a passion for quidditch, something which very few knew she loved.

"Yeah, trials for all house quidditch teams are tomorrow. Are you going to go?"

Rose shrugged. "Maybe I'll watch the Gryffindor ones, but I don't know if I'll go for the team yet. Maybe next year."

"Probably for the best, we all know that you can be a little clumsy."

Rose laughed a little and accidentally hit an ink bottle, it only wobbled and only a few drops of ink splashed themselves onto Rose's parchment.

"Well I'm going to the trials." Daniel continued. "Mosi smith, Sixth year, he's our team captain and last year I started to get to know him better. I figure I'll have a better chance of getting in the team if the captain knows my name."

Rose disapproved instantly. "No, you should be put on the team simply because of pure talent."

"I know that, but it can't _hurt_ to have him know my face."

Rose sighed. She still didn't agree, but she would rather drop the subject and finish her notes than argue for the rest of the lesson. Rose turned around and smiled at Phil who was none too happy to have to move seats next to Robin Stirling.

When the bell went Rose was happy to catch up with Phil and Mel, both of whom were very excited to hear what Rose's chat was like with Daniel and why he chose to specifically sit with her.

Meanwhile, Lunette had sat the whole lesson of defence against the dark arts sat next to Felix Stirling. She discovered that Felix liked to talk. A lot. Especially about Rose.

Scorpius made Albus wait at the end of lesson to meet Lunette.

"You still want to be her friend right?"

"Yeah." Albus muttered.

"Well then you need to make an effort. We kind of blew her off at lunch, I mean yeah, this time we had a proper excuse, but you can't always make excuses. Besides, she sat next to Stirling all lesson, she deserves an award for not punching the chatty prat."

Albus nodded and smiled as he saw Lunette rolling her eyes as she exited the classroom.

"Merlin! Felix likes to talk! Is he, by any chance, obsessed with Rose?" Lunette groaned as she walked with Scorpius and Albus.

Albus chuckled. "Yeah, they dated for a bit last year." Albus noticed Scorpius's expression of pure disgust. "And he got clingy and wouldn't leave her alone, and that didn't change when she broke up with him."

"Poor Rose." Lunette said with a sigh. "Oh! There's Nick. See you later guys." Nick whisked her away.

 **THAT NIGHT**

Albus was lazily slumped in an armchair by the fire in the Slytherin common room. He was feeling slightly down. Suddenly a head popped beside.

"Hey Albus!" the blonde girl had a sickly sweet voice. He recognised her as one of Mae Blinston's friends that followed her around all day and giggled at Rose whenever she walked past.

"Oh, hi. It's Buchan right?"

She giggled. "Yep, it's me, Holly Buchan. We don't really talk much do we?"

Albus shrugged. "I guess we haven't talked ever." He could not recollect ever actually speaking one syllable to her. But he could remember her being annoyingly close to him every now and then when he was writing an essay.

"Oh, well, we should change that." Holly leaned on the armrest of Albus's chair.

"Umm, you know what Buchan-"

"You can call me Holly if you want."

"Ok, Holly, I'm not really in the mood to talk to anyone right now. Actually I'm going to bed now." Albus sighed and walked to his dorm. He didn't see Holly's bottom lip sticking out just like Mae often did when she was flirting with Scorpius.

Rose and Wesley were patrolling the corridors outside the kitchens when Rose heard a sigh. She looked around to see that Wesley was no where near. She lit her wand and took a step closer.

"Merlin! Weasley! Get that light out of my eye."

It was Scorpius.

"It's past your curfew Malfoy, you should be in bed." Rose said grumpily

"Jealous you can't come to bed with me?" Scorpius smirked.

Rose resisted the hurt to hex him and only answered. "Would you rather me give you a detention writing lines with professor Stockett?"

Stockett was the games teacher and head of Ravenclaw. She was known for being strict.

"Alright." Scorpius put one arm up in defence. "You win, I'll go now."

That's when Rose noticed the mug he was holding. She looked at it suspiciously.

"Mug of tea, for Albus. He can't sleep." Scorpius explained.

"Then get him hot chocolate! Tea has more caffeine in it and will keep him awake. Even just hot milk will work better."

Scorpius rolled his eyes but when he realised that Rose was not moving out of his way, he knew that it was not up for debate.

"Fine!" Scorpius turned around, tickled the pear on a portrait of a gigantic silver fruit bowl, and disappeared through it to the kitchens. When he came back with a mug of hot milk, Rose was still there looking more worried than ever.

"Is Al going to be alright?" She muttered and slid onto the floor.

Scorpius didn't even think about it and sat beside her, shoulder to shoulder.

"Probably, it's just a crush."

"No, it was more than that. Albus never really ever had crushes when we were younger, somehow when I saw him with Lunette, it was something different. And Albus has never let anything keep him from sleeping."

"I think I know what you mean. A crush is one thing, but some people are special, and letting go of them is hard." Scorpius stared at Rose's worried face.

"Yeah. And Albus had to let go of her pretty quickly, it's not like he had two or three years before…" Her voice trailed off as she thought about how not being friends with Scorpius was one of the hardest things she ever had to do.

"I worry about him." Scorpius whispered.

Rose finally looked him in the eye. "I know you do, so do I."

"Maybe it would've been easier on everyone if we were still-"

"Yeah, but that's not going to happen." Rose said sadly.

They were in silence for a moment until they heard Wesley coming towards them calling out for Rose.

"Rose? Where did you go?" He was getting closer and the two stood up. "Rose, I'm bored, let's just go. Head Girl doesn't have to know if we leave early."

Scorpius sighed and rolled his eyes. "Some model student he is." he whispered and Rose smiled.

"He's well known and well liked because girls like him for his face. I think it was the lesser of three evils, if you look at his friends Sulli and Grant."

Scorpius let out a small chuckle. "True. Sullivan Earls isn't much of a leader and Grant Hathaway is worse than McLaggen."

Rose nodded. "It's past curfew, leave." She didn't sound very forceful but Scorpius left anyway and passed Wesley on his way.

"Were you talking to Malfoy without hexing him?" Wesley was really confused.

Rose shrugged with indifference. "It's past curfew and I threatened him with a detention. It's night, I'm not going to be hexing anyone. He might scream and cry so loudly and wake everybody up." Rose smiled as she saw Wesley flinch. Rose looked at her watch. "We've got five minutes left of our patrol, think you can hang on of that long."

Wesley groaned. "But I'm boooored."

"But I don't caaaare." Rose mimicked his whining.

Scorpius heard this and couldn't help but smile.

Rose and Wesley quietly made their way around the ground floor and then went back up to the Gryffindor dormitories. Rose thought about how easy her conversation with Scorpius was. It was like he had said, some people were special and it was hard to let go.

 **QUIDDITCH TRIALS**

Rose and Mel bundled themselves in gloves , scarves and coats and made their way to the quidditch stands. They waved to Phil who was lining up with the rest of the hopeful Gryffindors.

James began shouting at them and eventually and organised line was made. Rose laughed as this was the only time James and anything organised. after a long couple of hours, Phil finally came running up to Rose and Mel.

"I'm a beater! I actually got in!"

The girls embraced.

"Ooh, who is the other beater?" Mel asked

"Guess." Phil gave Mel a look of disbelief, the Gryffindor beater was always the same.

"Lorcan, as he always is." Rose answered. She looked down at the pitch and saw Lorcan doing cocky circles around Grant Hathaway and Wesley McLaggen. "I hate to say it, but that guy just keeps on getting better every year."

"I know!" Phil burst in a worried tone. "And I have to be just as good!"

Rose and Mel managed to calm Phil down.

"James wouldn't have chosen you if he didn't think you were up for the challenge." Rose gave a reassuring pat on the shoulder to Phil while Mel hugged her. "Quidditch is one of the few things he actually takes seriously."

"Hey look! Slytherin's are doing their trials!" Mel perked up and Rose and Phil turned to look.

"Merlin! Is that Al?" Rose squinted as she was sure her cousin who hated playing quidditch. "Why is he here?"

Albus spotted Rose in the stands and waved. Scorpius also saw her and turned around to look at anything else.

"They're leaving right?" Scorpius asked Gully. "You're not letting Gryffindors watch our trials are you?"

"Woah, calm down Malfoy." Gully put his arms up in defence. "If you were actually looking, you'd see that there leaving now."

Scorpius did turn around and saw that Rose and her friends had left. Then he finally turned his attention to Albus.

"Albus, are you ok?" Scorpius muttered as Gully started shouting at them all to get into a line.

Albus was white as a sheet and his mouth was dry. He looked at Scorpius with wide worried eyes.

"I suck at quidditch Scorpius! Now everyone will find out."

Scorpius didn't know how to answer this, but he didn't need to as Gully split them up into those wanted to be chasers, beaters, keepers and seekers. Scorpius went to the chaser line while Albus wondered over to the line with all the keepers, at least he could try and stay still on a broom with that position. Lloyd Parkinson also happened to lining up for the position of chaser. He was directly behind Scorpius.

"So pathetic Potter wants to be just like his brother?" Lloyd scoffed. "If I were him, I'd be ashamed to be a Potter, they're all the same, like little sheep following in their parents footsteps. The only reason he's even allowed near the quidditch team is because he's a Potter. I bet he's just like his brother and has no real skill."

Scorpius had had enough by that point. He spun around and in one swift flick, Lloyd had jelly legs and his friends were carrying him off the pitch.

Scorpius couldn't help but smile as he heard Lloyd swear at his friends for dropping him on the way to the castle door. It turned out that Lloyd hadn't been so quiet and the entire group of Slytherins who were at the trials had heard. Albus switched lines to stand next to Scorpius.

"Thanks mate." he whispered. "But he's right, I have no skills. But James does!"

"Say that louder." Scorpius whispered.

"What?" Albus continued whispering.

So Scorpius did it for him and spoke louder so that all those who were listening in could hear. "You're right Albus, you're not very good at quidditch. But James is, and so were your parents."

Albus understood that Scorpius was preparing everyone for Albus's failure. They had to be prepared or they're shock would have been embarrassing for Albus and his family. And if they didn't defend James, then the rest of the school would believe that he was only the Gryffindor quidditch captain because he was a Potter.

"Yep, I can barely stay on a broom if it's windy. And if it rains, I don't even bother to go near my broom. But James does, he's amazing at flying." Albus grinned at Scorpius as a few people stopped listening.

Gully had heard it all.

"Nonsense Potter, you're good at quidditch! You have to be."

"You can do it Albus!" A tiny voice shouted from somewhere in the stands. They all ignored it.

"Seriously Gully, I'm not lying. I suck. I am the worst at flying in my whole family," Albus didn't seem too upset by this, it was a fact he had come to terms with. "except Rose I guess. I've never really seen her on a broom but I can imagine she falls off a lot." Albus then sighed and rolled his eyes. "But I'll do this anyway because there's no way you'll believe me unless you see."

"That's the spirit." Scorpius said sarcastically with a smile.

The trials then went off without a hitch and Albus was as bad as he had warned and Scorpius proved how highly skilled he was.

"Alright. I'll put the final team up in the common room later for you all to see." Gully announced. On their way back to that castle, Gully grabbed Albus and whispered to him. "Look, you weren't the worst out there, I mean there a few first years who snuck in that couldn't even stay on a broom. If you just practised a little-"

"No Gully, I'm not doing it." Albus was outraged.

Gully quieted him again. "Look, I'll just take Malfoy off the team and then there's room for you."

"No way." Albus took a step away. "Scorpius was one of the best out there, and he's fast. If you want to even stand a chance winning, Scorpius is the best move forward. Not me."

"But you're a Potter."

Albus shrugged. "And you're a Gully and Scorpius is a Malfoy. What has my last name got to do with anything?" Albus stomped away but yet another person grabbed his arm. "Gully! I told you-"

But it wasn't Gully. It was Lunette. Albus's face was red again. She surprised him with a hug.

"I made the team Albus!" She squealed with delight as she let go of him. Rose was walking past and so Lunette dragged her into the conversation too. "I'm the Hufflepuff seeker!"

"Amazing Lunette!" Rose congratulated her with a side hug.

"Wow, well done." Albus grinned, he had never felt so happy for someone else before.

"Thanks, I couldn't believe it! This was only my third time playing as well!" She turned to Rose. "Thank you so much for the practise during the holidays."

Albus was confused. "Rose taught you to play quidditch?"

"Well, I already knew the game, she just helped me improve my flying."

Albus was still lost. "Rose plays quidditch? You're my cousin, how did I not know this?" He began to get excited. "Are you any good?"

Rose shrugged. "I only play a little bit and I'm alright at at."

Lunette scoffed.

"Anyway, well done Lunette. I think the first match is Slytherin vs Ravenclaw, so you better watch Scorpius's skills and get ready for them. Because Hufflepuff will be playing Slytherin in the second match in a few weeks time." Albus said and noticed Rose roll her eyes at Scorpius's name.

"Thanks for the heads up. Nick said that Hufflepuff were sure to win with me on their team." Lunette smiled sweetly.

Albus couldn't help but feel slightly disheartened at the mention of Nick, it was even worse when the Ravenclaw himself came up behind Lunette and lazily rested an arm on her shoulder.

"We'll see you around Lunette!" Rose waved goodbye and dragged Albus away. "Why don't we go down to the kitchens and get you some of those biscuits."

Albus shrugged and was about to reply when Daniel Leyton appeared.

"Hey Rose." He grinned. "I was wondering if you wanted to study the new herbology text books together? I need something to take my mind off quidditch." Daniel was suddenly angry and kicked the ground. "Stupid Smith didn't think I was good enough."

Rose felt a little sorry for him, after spending an hour talking nonstop about quidditch during a lesson, it had to be something Daniel really cared about.

"Umm, I can't right now. I wanted to spend some time with Al, but I'll be happy to after dinner." Rose ended with a smile.

"Oh, sure thing Rose. I'll see you then." Daniel sulked off.

"I think he likes you." Albus muttered.

"He's just being friendly."

Phil and Mel suddenly jumped in front of them so they stopped short.

"Merlin's beard!" Mel squealed.

"So what did he say?!" Phil excitedly shook Rose's arm.

Rose pulled herself away from her friends. "What? What's going on?"

"Dan! He came and spoke to you right?!" Somehow Mel seemed to be getting more and more excited by the second.

"Rose!" Lily appeared beside Albus. "I overheard Nick tell Lunette that Leyton said that he was going to ask you to study with him and then ask you out." Lily spoke too quickly and she had to repeat herself twice to Phil and Mel as they chattered away together.

Rose looked at Albus, "Look, do you just want to get out while we can? They're gossiping to each other, we can grab biscuits and I doubt they'll even notice we're gone."

Albus grinned. "No, actually I'm loving this."

Rose was mockingly outraged. "Al! What do you mean? I thought we were dealing with your love life."

Albus laughed, glad for the distraction. "No, no. I don't have a love life whereas you have a potential one. This is much more interesting."

Rose playfully punched his arm.

"So, are you going to go out with him if he asks?" Albus asked which got Phil Mel and Lily to stop chattering and turn to face Rose.

Rose's ears turned pink and she shrugged. "I don't know. I've never really thought about Daniel that way." she sent Lily a look that meant they would talk more later.

Scorpius tapped Albus on the shoulder. "I'm going to the library."

"Ok, I'll see you later then." Albus waved as Scorpius glared at Rose while walking away. Albus turned to Rose. "Biscuits?"

"Sure."

"Wait! You didn't tell us what happened!" Mel caught up with them.

"We can talk later." Rose reassured them. "Lily can meet up with us in the dorm later."

 **AFTER DINNER**

"So Rose, ready to study?" Daniel appeared hopefully beside Rose as she and Lunette were exiting the hall.

"Sure, just wait a second." Rose turned to Lunette. "Don't worry about it, Albus is just a bit awkward. He'll get used to you soon enough and then he'll stop turning bright red and stuttering. I promise."

Lunette sighed with relief. "Thanks Rose."

"But it might take him a while longer than usual."

"Why?" lunette was slightly alarmed.

"Because your one quarter veela! You are easily the prettiest girl in our year and you also happen to be one of the nicest girls me or Al have ever met. You seem pretty perfect and so Al doesn't know how to act in front of you." Rose smiled.

"Thanks, I guess. I wish he could just be himself."

"Give it time and he will be."

"And you're wrong Rose, I'm not perfect. I'm not even close to perfect." Lunette suddenly spotted Nick and went to him.

Rose spun to look at Daniel who had taken a few steps back so that she could have a private conversation with Lunette.

"Thanks for waiting."

"No problem. Shall we go?"

Rose heard a squeal of excitement from behind them. Unmistakably it came from Mel.

In the library, Scorpius was silently writing a long essay on Giant wars when he was interrupted by someone laughing. Not laughing, but giggling. An annoying giggle in his opinion. Scorpius looked up and around the library only too see Daniel Leyton and Rose whispering to each other. He rolled his eyes and couldn't stop himself from sending a biting jinx at Leyton's bag. While Leyton attempted to deal with his attacking bag, Scorpius was sniggering and Rose scowled at him.

"Hey, Daniel." Rose whispered to him.

Daniel wasn't listening, he was still trying to get his bag to stop biting him.

"Daniel." Rose whispered again, this time a little louder.

Daniel was still not listening.

Rose huffed and returned his bag back to normal with a simple flick of her wand. Daniel looked at her with pure amazement.

"Woah Rose, how did you know the counter curse off the top of your head?"

Rose looked over to Scorpius and spoke loud enough for him to hear. "It's not the first time I've seen that jinx being used." Rose then smirked. "I've often used it myself."

Daniel noticed Scorpius for the first time. "Should we go somewhere else? How about a stroll before curfew?"

Rose watched Scorpius's face change from anger to concern. 'He clearly doesn't approve of the possibility me and Daniel dating', thought Rose and she remembered Scorpius's reaction to Felix. 'Ok, so he was right about Felix, but we're not friends anymore and his opinion doesn't count. And Dan isn't that bad, maybe when I get to know him better, we'll be perfect for each other.'

"Sure Dan, let's go." Rose smiled.

Scorpius's face turned back to anger.

As she and Daniel walked out of the library, Rose got payback for Daniel and sent a shrinking charm at Scorpius's shoes.

Scorpius's toes were suddenly squashed. He leapt up out of his seat and put all his effort into ripping the shoes off. The librarian glared at him and Scorpius decided that it was best for him to leave before she shouted at him. Once in the corridor, Scorpius overheard Daniel speaking to Rose around the corner, he stopped short and listened in.

"-we would make a good couple. I mean, you're pretty, we're both smart and we got along so well the other day just the two of us in class and I realised that I'd like to spend more time just to two of us. I'd love to be more than 'the guy you drenched in water in third year', more than 'that Ravenclaw in my class', more than just friend. You make me happy and I like being around you-"

Scorpius scoffed at his cheesy way of asking her out

"-So, I'm asking, will you go out with me?"

Scorpius waited for Rose to reply. He only heard a sigh and some more silence. Then eventually she spoke.

"Daniel, I like being your friend. And you're right, we do get along pretty well. But-"

"Oh, come one Rose." Daniel interrupted.

Scorpius knew that Rose wouldn't like being interrupted. 'If anything, he's made it worse for himself.' Scorpius thought.

"Just think about it. Give me your answer sometime tomorrow." Daniel's voice was softer than Rose had ever heard it, she felt like she was seeing a gentler side of him.

"Ok, let's talk tomorrow." Rose said with a smile.

"Thanks for giving me a chance and not just shooting me down straight away." Daniel kissed her on the cheek then left her alone. "I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow." He called back.

Rose let out the breath she was holding and heavily leant against the stone banister. She watched Daniel make his way to the Ravenclaw common room. She chuckled when he noticed she was watching and blew her a kiss.

"You're not seriously thinking about going out with him, are you?" Scorpius appeared leaning beside her.

Rose jumped and scowled. "Why? What's it to you?"

Scorpius shrugged. "You're my best friend's cousin, I don't want him suffering with all you're inevitable whining once you start dating Leyton. I heard he's no good."

"Well, I guess you heard wrong, he's pretty nice to me. Or maybe you're so impossible to get along with that everyone's no good to you. No one's good enough for the little rich boy." Rose spat and stormed off. She shouted back at him. "It's none of your business who I do or don't date. And your opinon means nothing to me. You know what, I might actually go out with him. I wasn't sure, but your advice holds so little credit that it's making me want to do the exact opposite."

Scorpius growled sarcastically. "Well that makes _perfect_ sense Weasley!"

"It doesn't _have_ to make make sense to _you_ Malfoy. It's _my_ life."

"You know, if _you_ weren't so stubborn and obnoxious, you'd see that _I'm_ right."

"Piss off Malfoy." Rose spat and angrily marched off to the Gryffindor common room.

Scorpius marched to the Slytherin common room.

"Rose!" Phil, Mel and Lily greeted her as she stomped into her dorm, still angry at Scorpius.

She flopped onto her bed face first.

"Uh oh, that can't be good." Lily said to mostly herself.

"What happened?" Mal bounced onto the bed next to Rose's head.

Rose sat up so that there was room for all three of them to sit on her bed. "Where's Anna?"

"Being a third wheel with Robin and her boyfriend Sulli." Phil answered grumpily .

"Ok, well, you were right." Rose looked at Lily. She then proceeded to tell them all what happened from Scorpius and the biting jinx to Daniel asking her out with his cheesy 'confession'. She neglected to tell them about Scorpius afterwards.

"Are you going to say yes tomorrow?" Phil asked.

"I think so, I mean, I like Daniel, he's nice. And he's definitely different from Felix, which is what I was hoping to find in a new relationship. Plus, he's so passionate about things and I feel like we can talk properly, whereas Felix wasn't that smart."

"True." Phil nodded

Lily looked at her watch. "Merlin! I've got to go to bed. I've got a potions test tomorrow." she rushed out the room.

"Shoot, I think I left my slippers in the common room. I'll be back in a sec." Rose hurried out after Lily.

Phil and Mel shrugged and went to bed.

"Rose!" Lily said quietly as soon as she saw her in the narrow corridor outside the rows of doors leading to all of the girls dormitories. "You didn't tell us everything did you? Something must have happened between Daniel asking you out and you coming back."

"Malfoy happened."

"Ah," Lily understood. "And he had an opinion which made you think the exact opposite."

Rose nodded.

"So, are you sure you want to go out with him? I mean, you can't date someone simply because your enemy warned you against them."

Rose sighed and leaned against the wall. "I know, but I can't show Malfoy that I agree with him. And, besides, Daniel _is_ nice. Actually, do you remember I humiliated him and Finley in my third year by using a water charm and making them slip in mud then changing their hair colour?"

"Yeah."

"Well, later on in the year, Daniel came and apologised to me. He was really sweet and I thought that he'd maybe ask me out then, but he didn't."

"Were you disappointed that he didn't ask you out then?"

Rose shook her head and shrugged. "Honestly, no. It didn't really matter to me at all because I don't think I would've said yes anyway."

"I don't get it, why is he different now?"

"He's not, but maybe I've grown up a little bit and realised his apology was sincere. He's never made fun of me since, whereas Finley has, and Dan and I have had really had good intellectual conversations before. I like him and I'm willing to give it a try."

Lily shrugged and gave Rose a side hug. "Well, it's up to you. I just don't want to see you hurt."

"I think I can handle myself Lily."

"I know that. But one day you might not have a handle on things because you'll fall hard for someone but you'll break each others hearts. And then you might just be hurting so much inside that you won't speak to anyone about it for awhile."

Rose laughed. "Whatever you say Lils. Goodnight."

"I'm serious, love makes people do stupid things."

 **THIRD WEEK**

The news that Rose Granger-Weasley was dating some Ravenclaw took less then a week to travel around the school. Even the teachers knew. But only professor Longbottom and professor Lupin really cared as they were practically family to Rose. Once they found out the name of Rose's new boyfriend, they glared at Daniel suspiciously while teaching. They, along with Lucy who was in Ravenclaw with Daniel, received daily letters from Ron and Hermione to check on Rose as Hugo had let slip that she had a boyfriend (Lucy tried on countless occasions to explain to her uncle that Head Boy and Girl no longer used their house common rooms and dormitories as they shared a separate one near the headmasters office). Those who cared about her were hoping that this new boyfriend was not as wimpy as the first.

That weekend was the first visit to Hogsmeade and Rose could be seen happily chatting away to Daniel.

"No way, you never even noticed me!" Daniel said with a grin. "The only time was when I was with Finley and you managed to get me covered in mud and somehow I was the one who ended up with a buttload of detentions!"

"That's not entirely true." Rose smiled back. "Ok, maybe I didn't really notice you for a while, but when you apologised to me after third year, I really thought you were proving yourself to be a decent guy and a friend."

"Really?" Daniel stopped in front of her and tried to hold her hand but Rose wasn't giving it up.

"Really. It showed me that you were actually quite mature and your apology was so sincere. I myself hate apologising, it shows that I was wrong and I hate being wrong. I think you'll find me very stubborn Mr Leyton."

"And I think you'll find me very accepting of the long list of things you hate."

Rose chuckled. They reached the Three Broomsticks and Daniel opened the door for her.

"After the lady." He said with a charming smile. "As you can see, I can be quite chivalrous."

Rose's eyes narrowed as she went inside out of the cold air of late September. 'Lady? Did he just call me lady?' Rose thought bitterly to herself. 'Why can't he say my name? It's not that long, it even has less syllables than lady. And why do I care if holding the door for a girl is chivalrous? I would have opened the door for him if I had got there first.' But she ignored his borderline sexism as it was their official first date.

However, Daniel insisted on buying her a butterbeer which she accepted but when Rose got up to pay for their second round, he just said

"Women don't have to do anything on dates. The man should pay." And Daniel pushed her back onto her seat, he had meant to be gentle but Rose wobbled a bit on her chair.

Rose scowled at the back of his head. 'I don't think he means to offend me, but if this keeps on happening I might have to say something.'

Wednesday evening, after his prefect duty, Scorpius angrily burst into the Slytherin common room and leaned on the back of an armchair opposite Albus who was writing an essay and trying to get Holly Buchan to leave him alone.

"What's up mate? How was prefect duty?" Albus asked, shuffling onto the arm of the chair just so Buchan would let go of him.

"Well Monday I threatened to ruin someone's relationship and today I taught them what happens if you ignore me the first time, two things that might get my prefect title taken away from me if anyone ever found out."

Albus looked up and stared at Scorpius for a while. He could see that his friend was not joking.

"I won't ask then."

"And I won't tell you."

Albus shrugged. "Fair enough. I'll be an innocent party, not an accessory."

Scorpius smiled. They had recently had a lesson about the muggle justice system.

"Muggle studies homework?" Scorpius peered over at what Albus was writing.

He nodded in reply.

"I'll go and get mine. I'm almost finished." Scorpius ran off to his dorm but he realised he was being followed. He stopped and spun around, it was Holly Buchan. "Can I help you?" he asked dryly.

"Does Albus have a girlfriend?" She sighed.

"Not that I know of." Scorpius looked at her suspiciously.

"Is he just uncomfortable around girls then? I mean, he seems pretty normal with his cousins but he's also pretty civil with Mae."

"Well, Mae is my friend so Albus has to at least acknowledge her presence."

"So he notices her because she's with you."

Scorpius shrugged, he wasn't entirely sure what Holly was getting at.

"Do _you_ have a girlfriend?"

Scorpius leaned against the wall. "Not currently." He then smiled charmingly, "why do you ask?"

Holly also leant on the wall, closer to him. "I'm just interested. How could a guy as smart and handsome as you still be single? The other girls in our year must be dumber than I thought." She smiled slyly at him. "I'll catch up with you later Scorpius." She gently put a hand on his arm and then pushed herself slowly off the wall.

When Scorpius returned with his almost complete essay, his friend couldn't stop grinning.

"What?"

"I think you might have a potential date. Yet another girl flirting with you, I wonder how Blinston will take this?"

"Ok, so Holly was flirting a bit, but Mae doesn't anymore. I think she finally understands that I just want to be her friend."

Albus scoffed. "No chance."

As if on cue, Mae Blinston appeared at Scorpius's side and was practically drooling over him as she waffled away about how neat his handwriting was. Neither Albus or Scorpius were really listening to her.

The next day Daniel walked into care of magical creatures with a broken nose. He went to greet Rose with a hug but she managed to sidestep her bruised boyfriend. Finely Norwood chuckled at his friend.

"Ah, mate! What happened?" He spurted through laughs.

"Nothin'" Daniel shrugged.

Scorpius scowled at Daniel from the other side of the group. Rose saw this and brushed it off, she figured that Scorpius was just annoyed at another one of her boyfriends for no reason other than he hated her.

"Well something _obviously_ happened." Rose muttered just loud enough for Daniel to hear.

"Seriously, it's nothing!" Daniel snapped at her. "For Merlin's sake, just calm down woman."

Rose gritted her teeth. After dating for just over a week Rose discovered that referring to her as 'woman' was something Daniel did and she often called him on it when they were alone. But now, surrounded by his friends and the fact that Scorpius was there and she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of being right about Daniel, she just sighed.

"Just, come here." Rose dragged Daniel by the ear away from the group of students. Needless to say that when she dragged him away she did it with a little too much force. He was going to pay for addressing her as her gender, rather than her name, one way or another.

"Ow, Merlin! I'm already in enough pain without you pinching me so hard!" Daniel whined at Rose.

"What happened?"

"Nothing. I just fell over." Daniel shrugged uninterestedly while looking back at his friends who were now talking and laughing about something else. He'd rather be laughing with them than dealing with his concerned girlfriend.

Rose rolled her eyes. She grabbed his ear and forced him to look at her. Daniel glared at her, but she pointed her wand right at his nose. His faced turned to fear.

"Look, Rose, babe, calm down. We can talk about this rationally later." He began to stutter as more and more of the other students watched as Rose held her wand steady pointed at his face. "I swear, I just walked into a wall!"

"So, how come I don't believe you?" Rose groaned in a monotone voice.

Professor Nye had just turned up and saw Rose and Daniel, the latter now had his arms up in surrender.

"Miss Weasley, what is going on?! What are you doing?" Nye was slightly panicked. He did not try to get in between his two students as he had seen Rose's quick hexing skills in the castle corridors.

"Don't worry sir, I'm just putting everything back to right." And with a swish of her wand, Daniel winced. Rose had fixed his nose. He had been expecting something else.

Nye clapped loudly and a few awkward students joined in. Most just stood there stunned that Rose new such a complex spell.

"Well done Miss Weasley!" Nye praised his student. She grinned but Daniel still looked in shock. "Now, as long as you weren't the one who broke his nose in the first place, ten points to Gryffindor!"

The few other Gryffindor students cheered as the other houses grumbled slightly, but were still impressed with Rose's skills.

Professor Nye was starting his lesson and droned on in his Sonorus charm, which the class had gotten so well at ignoring. Scorpius glared at Daniel more. Rose asked him about it but Daniel just shrugged.

"I guess he just hates me because I'm with you. And everybody knows that he hates you the most."

Scorpius heard this and stood in outrage. Nye looked in complete loss, Scorpius was usually so well behaved. He grabbed his bag and charged back towards the castle, leaving the whole class to stare after him. Scorpius did not leave without knocking over Daniel's bag resulting in his belongings being spread over the grass.

Rose was confused as to why Scorpius had left. Sure they hated each other, but he had never stormed out or even skipped a lesson before. Why start now? Rose shook her head and told herself off, she didn't have time and she didn't care enough about Scorpius to question his motives. For a long while Daniel stared, paranoid, in the direction Scorpius had stormed off too.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" Rose asked.

Daniel snapped his head back. "What?" He sounded panicked. "What did he say?" he added urgently.

"What?" Rose was confused, "What did who say?" Rose gently put the back of her hand on Daniel's forehead. "Did someone hit your head as well as your nose?" she asked with genuine concern.

"I told you-" Daniel started to get more irritated and raised his voice. Professor Nye heard him and interrupted.

"Mr Leyton! I expect your full attention."

Rose raised her hand. "Sorry sir, but I think that Daniel may need to go to the hospital wing, I think he hit his head to hard and he's not making any sense."

"Very amusing Miss Weasley. Now I would like everyone to pay attention." Nye continued his class.

"I walked into a door that's all." Daniel whispered harshly.

Rose huffed and started making notes. She leaned in closer and added bitterly, "Earlier you said that you fell, and then you said that it was a wall."

Before Daniel could answer Rose dived into her notes. He knew that she had called his bluff.

Daniel managed to avoid her for the rest of the day and claimed to only have time to briefly speak to her for the rest of the week between classes before her rushed off to the Ravenclaw common room. Rose could tell that there was something more than him just ignoring her to avoid a potential fight, yet she had know idea what it could be.

She finally managed to spend more than two minutes with him over the weekend.

 **THIRD WEEK, SATURDAY**

"I'm sorry Dan." Rose tried to by sympathetic to her boyfriend as they strolled towards the castle. But Daniel was in a really bad mood and it was annoying her.

"This is ridiculous! I hate those Slytherins!" Daniel was so angry he pushed Rose harder than he meant to when she tried to comfort him by holding his arm.

"Hey, don't judge an entire house based on one-" Rose stopped and sighed as a group of Slytherins ran past shouting and laughing, and pushing over first years in celebration. "Never mind, I get that some of them are bad. But not all."

"You're only saying that because your cousin is in Slytherin. So just shut up Rose." He pushed away again even though she wasn't touching him.

Rose stopped clenched her fists and walked away from him, towards the changing rooms rather than the castle.

"What the hell are _you_ doing?" Daniel was still mad from the quidditch game.

"I'm giving you space to be angry. Stop taking it out on me and grow up. Besides I need to talk to someone, I'll meet up with you outside Gryffindor common room after I finish prefect duty tonight."

Daniel just grunted in reply and continued his angry walk back to the castle alone. Had he actually paid any attention to Rose, he would have realised that it wasn't her turn to do prefect duty that night.

Scorpius exited the Slytherin boys changing rooms with a wide, smug grin on his face. He had just won his first ever quidditch game as chaser. Mae ran up to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as she giggled. Most students had already left the quidditch pitch to go to lunch, only the players who were getting changed and a few others stood waiting around for their friends were still there. The majority of the school were in a fowl mood. It was the first match of the quidditch season and Slytherin had just beaten Ravenclaw. This meant only the Slytherins were pleased.

"Oh Scorpius," Mae flopped in his arms and spoke dreamily. "You were an amazing today! I think you are the best chaser Hogwarts has ever seen!"

Mae's squeals were interrupted by a sarcastic scoff. One Scorpius knew well.

"Yeah right, I heard Malfoy's only on the team because there was nobody else available. Albus practically gave you the chance. We all know the Slytherins would much prefer a Potter on the team." Rose smirked as she leant, crossed arms, against the outside wooden wall of the changing rooms.

"I'm better than Albus at flying and you know it." Scorpius defensively took a step forward and Mae lost her grasp of his shoulders.

Rose stepped forward and said through gritted teeth, "You and I also know that that doesn't matter to _most_ people. They _judge_ him because he's a _Potter_ and quidditch, according to those idiots, is what Potters are _supposedly_ meant to do." Rose took a step back and shrugged. "You're still not the best. I could fly circles around you in my sleep."

Scorpius watched her apprehensively. He had never actually seen her fly. He snapped back at her. "Well you're forgetting who won the game. Slytherins! And who scored the final goal? Me!" He gathered back some of his cockiness.

"You got lucky."

Scorpius huffed. "What do you want anyway Weasley?"

"Yeah, nobody wants to talk to some ugly, soulless redhead." Mae added bitterly.

Both Rose and Scorpius rolled their eyes and ignored Mae.

"Believe me, I don't want to be talking to you anymore than you want to be attacked by the giant squid."

"Unfair comparison." Scorpius mumbled under his breath, Rose heard and only raised her eyebrows.

"The other Slytherin prefect is ill and in the hospital wing, so head girl asked me to do rounds with you tonight. So no Slytherin victory party for you I'm afraid. I'll meet you after dinner at the entrance hall." Rose said with indifference and turned to leave.

"Yeah right. Head girl aka your cousin Lucy Weasley, bet you practically begged her to put you on rounds with me!" Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"Oh, yes Malfoy! Well done, you've found the meaning behind my every action, everything I do is to be with you!" Rose mocked Mae's dreamy voice and sarcastically pretended to faint into his arms, Scorpius only just managed to catch her as he had not been expecting it.

He unwillingly caught the familiar scent of new parchment and freshly cut grass from Rose as he held her briefly.

She stood and gently shoved his shoulder. "Get over yourself Malfoy. You're not as important as you think you are. Your usual prefect buddy is genuinely ill, can't you feel some sympathy for her? Wow, well if you can't even care enough about your fellow house mate, I almost feel pity for your girlfriend." Rose finally looked at Mae who was standing behind Scorpius looking angry. "That is, I would feel pity, if Blinston wasn't so uncaring and pathetic."

"We're not going out." Scorpius spoke quickly.

"But, you said..." Mae strode towards him and wrapped around his right arm.

Scorpius pulled away from her. "I said what? When? I don't remember these conversations you seem to think we have.."

Rose knew she had successfully annoyed both of them, so she smirked and strutted off.

Scorpius realised what Rose had done and stormed away from Mae mid sentence and went to his room to put away his Slytherin quidditch uniform before dinner. Rose had successfully dampened his mood after a victory.

After dinner Rose was lazily leaning against a wall by the entrance hall as Scorpius came begrudgingly down the stairs. He sighed and rolled his eyes when he saw Rose check her watch. She had obviously seen him coming and looked at her watch to emphasise his lateness and it aggravated him.

"Alright Weasley, tonight, I'm all yours." Scorpius held his arms open wide and gave a sarcastic charming smile.

"Oh joy." Rose said in a monotone voice. She suddenly became very businesslike. "We'll start with the main corridors to make sure no one's picking on first years before their curfew. Then we check classrooms. Then we circle around checking outside the common rooms, twice if we have time."

"All work and no play. Typical Weasley." Scorpius rolled his eyes and showed his boredom

"Zip your whiny howler Malfoy, I'm only doing this as a favour to Lucy. Otherwise you'd be left on your own. Nobody else could be persuaded to help you."

"And what made you so desperate to spend time with me?" Scorpius asked slyly

"Head girl is my cousin, you berk." Despite being smaller, Rose was a lot quicker at walking than Scorpius who strutted lazily behind her.

"So?" Scorpius wasn't sure how family relations had anything to do with her helping him do prefect duty

"So I would do anything for my family. Even if they ask the worst, like helping some prat do prefect duty or crossing paths with a yeti."

The yeti is believed to be related to the troll, though no one has yet got close enough to conduct the necessary tests. At up to fifteen feet in height, the yeti devours anything that strays into its path.

"Oooh, ouch Weasley. Your words really hurt me." Scorpius pretended to have a wounded heart and 'fainted' on to floor.

A couple of third year Ravenclaw girls saw him and giggle. Scorpius sat up and winked at them before Rose gave them a stern look. The girls ran away quickly.

They were silent for a while and Scorpius finally thought of something to say.

"You know what might interest you, I've been reading a muggle book."

Rose scoffed in disbelief.

"Yeah, as a Christmas present someone gave me some kids book about a girl called Alice. It's alright, and since it's my own copy I think I'll be reading it a lot."

Rose bit her tongue. Scorpius was trying to get a rise out of her. Hugo had given Scorpius her own ' _Alice in Wonderland'_ book to borrow, no to keep. However, Rose knew that if she said anything, Scorpius would know that it was she who let him borrow the book. And that was the last thing Rose wanted.

"Ok, on to checking classrooms." Rose quickly changed the subject as soon as they finished the main hallways.

"That was quick. Man, you really don't want to be with me do you?" Scorpius huffed.

Rose suddenly turned around and shot him daggers from her eyes. She flicked her wand and his hair turned blue.

Scorpius scowled and retaliated with the same hex. She looked like she had a big blue fluffy bird sitting on top of her head. Scorpius chuckled. They returned their hair back to its original colour and Rose stormed ahead of Scorpius again.

Scorpius lifted his wand. Rose second guessed him. Before he knew it, Rose had disarmed Scorpius and was pointing both wands at his face.

"Let's just call a truce for now Malfoy. We can finish prefect duty without hexing each other, or do I need to perform a bat-bogey hex on you right now with two wands?"

Scorpius thought back to the many times he had been on the receiving end of Rose's bat-bogey hexes. It was bad enough when the short tempered redhead only used one wand. He couldn't imagine what pain may befall him if she used two wands.

"Alright." Scorpius put his hands up in defence and Rose cautiously gave back his wand.

She may have called a truce, but Rose was still not happy to be helping Scorpius. Rose pushed open the door of an empty classroom, took a quick look around and joined Scorpius again in the corridor. And this is what they did for ten minutes. Their truce was more like dead silence so not to aggravate each other.

Scorpius checked another classroom and stopped short before backing out slowly.

"Umm, Weasley?" He quietly called for her as she was checking another classroom.

"What?" She snapped.

Scorpius nodded his head to indicate to the classroom he had just checked.

"If this is one of your pathetic little pranks, I'm not inter-"

"No, not that." He whispered nodded his head sharply at the closed door

Rose rolled her eyes and huffed before carefully opening the door. What she saw made her let out a quiet squeal and jump out the room again as if it were made of fire.

Scorpius raised an eyebrow at Rose's reaction.

She paced back and forth in front of the door muttering something to herself. Took a deep breath. Then charged back into the classroom, her wand out and steam shooting out her ears.

Daniel Leyton and some Ravenclaw girl were making out on the table. Daniel jumped away from the girl as soon as he saw Rose.

Scorpius heard Daniel try to shout some excuse. Next thing he knew the girl was running out of the classroom. She didn't seem angry or upset, just a little flustered.

Rose had calmly told the girl, who was in the year below, that it was past her curfew and that she better leave before a detention in the forbidden forest came her way. Rose turned to Daniel, raised an eyebrow and hung him upside down my his right ankle. Rose swiftly walked out the room as Daniel was shouting at her to get down. She looked at Scorpius then went back into the room where she shut up Daniel with a jinx and left again. Scorpius just stood still wondering what he should do when Rose turned to talk to him.

"Some idiot Ravenclaw is helplessly flailing about in there. You should probably sort him out." Then she walked away and checked the rest of the classrooms on that floor.

Scorpius smiled despite himself. He and Rose may not get along, but he had to admire her reaction to finding her boyfriend cheating. It was as if Daniel was suddenly dead to her. She didn't even cry or seem particularly upset.

He went into the classroom and let Daniel down. Daniel looked awkward. Scorpius just gave him a cold look before flicking his wand again giving the Ravenclaw the ability to speak.

"Umm, thanks? I guess." Daniel shrugged

"Shut up Leyton, you knew this was coming. You keep cheating on someone, they'll eventually catch you."

"You put her up to this didn't you? You told her!" Daniel was angrily shouting.

"You're not important enough for me to ruin your relationship." Scorpius shut the door and caught up with Rose.

"So…" Scorpius said slowly, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Nope." Rose said quickly

"Why did you even go out with a guy like that anyway?"

Rose turned and sent daggers from her eyes. "Because he was nice and interesting and he didn't hex me in the corridors or criticise my relationships or pretend too be my friend for three years!" She shouted.

Rose shook with anger. She wasn't directly angry at Scorpius, although he always made her angry, but her humiliation after just finding out she had been cheated on was coming out and pointed at him.

Scorpius glared at her and spat bitterly. "You know what Weasley, I can do the rest by myself and you're lucky that I won't report you for your treatment of Leyton. He deserved it. I don't need your babysitting Weasley, I don't care what Head Girl said." He strutted off without so much of a backwards glance.

This irritated Rose even more. If anything she should be the one ditching him. Not the other way around.

Rose reached the Gryffindor common room only to find Daniel waiting for her with some excuses lined up.

"Rose-" he began desperately.

"No." She grunted and pushed her way through the portrait.

 **END OF SEPTEMBER**

There was a different mood around the school. It was more peaceful, yet suspicious. Even the teachers noticed it. The main reason for this was down to one person.

Holly Buchan.

She had started dating Scorpius and she often distracted him. (Constantly having to pull her away from flirting with Albus who hated it more than Scorpius did.) And thanks to Buchan, Scorpius ignored Rose's presence.

He didn't fight with her. He didn't argue. He didn't hex or jinx or prank her. Their potions teacher was still adamant that they were a good pair to put together as they were his best pupils, but Scorpius refused to speak to Rose during their lessons. Rose found, that since he did not communicate, she had to do a lot of the work.

All of this aggravated Rose like nothing had ever before. She found a new level of irritation. But Rose claimed that it was only because her grades weren't as high as usual in potions. She and Scorpius were being marked down for not working as a team. Something which Rose thought was ridiculous.

Holly and Scorpius occasionally held hands, but Rose noticed that Holly put on a 'happy and sickly lovey-dovey' voice whenever Albus was around. Rose couldn't help but think that maybe she was one dating Scorpius so that Albus would notice her. Something that even Anna Gardener would have done to get Albus's attention.

Rose was making her way to the hall for dinner one evening, the corridor was practically deserted as she was late to dinner, her potions easy simply too important to her O. as her partner in class was not pulling his weight. Rose noticed Scorpius and Buchan holding hands and she scowled. It was all thanks to him that her grades were not she had wanted. Thanks to him that she had to constantly ask their professor for extra that would boost her grades.

"Oi! Malfoy!" Rose angrily shouted before she knew what she was doing.

He turned his head slightly, saw it was Rose and kept on walking. She sent a tripping jinx at him, he only stuttered slightly but kept on moving. If anyone had seen that they would have taken it as Rose attacking Scorpius for no reason. That would not have been good for her. But as it was nobody had seen.

But while one new relationship had just begun, another one ended. Nick had broken up with Lunette. No one could understand why. She seemed perfect to everyone. She was kind, she had good friends in every house, she was not dumb and not so smart that she outshone everyone, she was beautiful, one quarter veela, she was popular and she spoke both French and Bulgarian. Yet Nick was positive he had done the right thing.

Lunette felt a bit down, yet found comfort in her many friends. Mostly Rose and Albus who helped.

After dinner, Lunette caught up with Rose who was walking back to her common room glaring at the back of Scorpius's head as he was walking slightly win front of her.

"Rose!" Lunette gently grabbed her arm.

"Oh, hi. I heard about Nick, sorry." Rose stopped and they found an empty corner to stand and chat undisturbed.

"No, don't be. I guess he just didn't like me as much as I thought. I'm not really upset, just disappointed with myself for ever liking him. I can be so dumb sometimes." Lunette stared at her feet.

"We all make mistakes Lunette, I mean, just look at my last two boyfriends. You can't do any worse than a clingy guy who obsess over you and a guy who cheats on you."

Lunette smiled. "I guess we all make stupid mistakes."

"Exactly, we're not all like James who can have up to two girlfriends per month, have horrible breakups and then continue as if nothing ever happened."

Lunette laughed, James had just walked past with a new girlfriend who was looking none too happy that a bunch of other girls were following them jealously.

"But there are some of us who get it right first time. Bam! Their first love is the one they say with and never regretted it. Like my parents. My dad was the first person my mother ever dated for longer than a week and she was the first and last woman my dad ever dated."

"Yeah, but things very rarely turn out that way-"

But Lunette was thinking and interrupted Rose.

"There are certain people you can look at and know instantly, 'the love of your life is the first person you set your eyes on.' And they'll know it too! People like, oh I don't know, Albus. You can just look at him and know that he'll never make any stupid mistakes when it comes to his love life. He's too kind and innocent for anyone to take him for granted!"

Rose eyed her suspiciously and smiled. "You know, Albus is single, he's never dated anyone." she added subtly.

"That's because he hasn't met 'the one' yet. He's waiting for him or her and then he'll ask him or her out."

"Well, maybe he has met 'the one' but hasn't had the guts to ask them out." Rose casually shrugged.

Rose thought back to all the times Albus had drooled over Lunette and how miserable he got when she was dating Nick. Rose was 99% sure that, despite being so young, Lunette was the love of his life. There was a certain look in his eyes whenever she passed.

"So how are you doing Rose?" Lunette changed the subject.

Rose shrugged. "I'm not sad about Dan, I shouldn't have dated him. I'm actually more angry at myself for not realising sooner that he was cheating on-"

"No I mean about Scorpius and Holly."

"What?!" Rose was slightly flustered.

Lily had overheard and suddenly appeared with them.

"Yeah Rose," Lily became very sympathetic. "How are you feeling now that he is with another girl and completely ignoring you?"

Rose grit her teeth and clenched her fists. "I'm _fine_. I don't care about him in at all. The _only_ thing that really _bugs_ me is that he's not contributing at all in potions class and we're being marked down for it."

"Mmhmm." Lily nodded and grinned. "Sure." she sarcastically agreed.

"It's true!" Rose said through her teeth.

Lunette laughed.

"I know!" Lily mocked sarcastically. "Im agreeing with you!"

Lunette was now in hysterics.

"Ok." Rose huffed. "I've got a potions essay to rewrite." she began to charge away but Lunette grabbed her arm again.

"Sorry," she stopped laughing but couldn't stop smiling. "All your cousins are pretty cool."

Lily grinned, did a silly salute and strutted off just as Hugo was passing.

"Thanks."

They both watched as people continued to pass them in the corridor, Rose's cousins seemed to come out in clumps.

"We're all pretty close and protective. Like, as a rule, Lily hates all of James's girlfriends. And if anyone has a boyfriend or girlfriend who is in another house, whoever is in the same house will keep an eye on them and report back to the rest of us. Birthdays are fun too, we all sneak into each other's common rooms early in the morning and pass around presents."

"That sounds fun." Lunette sighed. "I don't really have any family other than my parents and my grandparents are still in France."

"Then we'll be your family." Rose wrapped an arm around Lunette's shoulder. "We all like you and I'm pretty sure that you'd be welcome to all birthday mornings."

Lunette began tearing up. "Thank you so much Rose." and she hugged her.

Rose felt a bit awkward and patted Lunettes back.

"Rose! What did you do?!" Albus jumped between them with a worried face. "Lunette?"

She turned and hugged him instead, Rose stared at them feeling slightly lost.

"Lunette? Are you ok? What happened?" Albus had never felt so much concern for anyone. He seemed to realise that Rose hadn't been the cause and looked at her over Lunette's shoulder. "Is something to do with Nick?" he asked Rose.

He felt Lunette shake her head on his shoulder. She stopped crying and let go of Albus.

"No," she sniffed then smiled. "Rose said I could be part of the family. I really like you guys." She sniffed. "Rose, you're like the sister I never had and Lily's like my little funny cousin. And so is Dom, she's been really nice to me. So has Roxanne. And James and Fred have been acting like protective older brothers." she hugged Rose again. Lunette turned to Albus and stared at him for a while before hugging him too. "Albus, your, - you, -you're like, I- I really." Lunette didn't know what to say. Albus wasn't like a brother or cousin to her.

Lunette gulped then hurried off to the Hufflepuff common room.

"I'm just a nobody." Albus slumped on to the floor.

Rose joined him. "I don't think so Al."

"Rose, I've never felt so hopeless and enchanted but invisible at the same time. Lunette is the most amazing person I've ever met, I'd do anything just to see her smile. But she doesn't see me in any way other than, a guy she met once at a fair." Albus sighed and stood. He stuck out his hand to help Rose up but she pushed it aside.

"I think she might just think of you more than you realise."

Albus shook his head. "You may be the smartest person I know Rose, but you're wrong about this one."

Rose shrugged and smiled. "We'll just see."

Albus trudged back to his common room and Rose took her time strolling lazily to the library. She spotted something colourful out of the corner of her eye. Rose yanked back a tapestry to reveal Lunette. She was shaking, staring at nothing.

"Wha-?" Rose couldn't finish.

"Does Albus really feel that way about me?" Lunette blurted out.

All Rose could do was nod.

"Shit." Lunette banged her head repeatedly against the wall. Rose finally came to her senses and pulled Lunette away and led her outside to the courtyard.

"Rose," Lunette lay on her back on a cold stone bench. "Albus can't like me. I've never been good in relationships and I don't want to hurt Albus, he's too, well," Lunette shrugged. "He's too Albus!"

Rose squinted in confusion. "So, is this your way of saying that you'd like to go out with Al?" she asked slowly.

"He's the most wonderful, funny, sweet, charmingly awkward person I've ever met. I liked him the moment I met him. He's going to make some girl very happy someday." Lunette sighed.

"So why not you?" Rose was still confused. "If you asked him out, he'd say yes in a heartbeat. And if you're single for much longer, he may even get enough courage to ask you out."

Lunette sat up and but her lip. "I know. Which is why I need him to stop liking me."

"It's not like he can just turn it off."

"But he has to!" Lunette started pacing. "I don't want to be the girl that hurt him. I'm no good, I'm not perfect."

"Al knows you're not perfect, but he doesn't care."

"If I'm his friend, I'm not hurting him right?" Lunette wasn't really listening or directly talking to Rose.

"You're hurting him by going out with other guys." Rose mumbled then spoke louder for Lunette to hear, "You know that it will hurt like hell if, I doubt he ever will, but if he gets over you and goes out with someone else."

Lunette stopped pacing and stared at Rose. "Merlin, it will won't it?" she slapped her forehead. "Then what do I do?!"

Rose took a seat on the bench. "To be honest Lunette, I have no idea. I mean, what are you meant to do if someone who is special to you dates someone else? You can't tell them. That would be anarchy-" this time Rose was more talking to herself.

"But Albus isn't dating anyone."

"Oh, right. Sorry, I was thinking of someone-thing something else." Rose's ears turned pink. she sighed and looked at lunette. "I guess you can just hope that one day they won't be special to you at all."

"well, I don't want that."

Rose shrugged. "Then I really don't know what to tell you."

Lunette sat next to Rose and rested her head on her shoulder.

"Tinker!" Someone shouted loudly as they passed.

Lunette sat up quickly and looked around.

"Oh, hey Macmillan." Lunette gave a small wave to the sixth year who came striding towards them.

Rose recognised him, he was Elliot Macmillan, a Hufflepuff prefect in the year above. He and James had 'frienemey' relationship. They got along until quidditch season where their competitiveness took over.

"Tinker, ready for practise?" Elliot looked her up and down realising she was not in her quidditch robes.

Lunette shot up. "Merlin! I forgot! Ok, I'll be down in just a bit Elliot! See you Rose!" She sprinted inside.

Elliot chuckled slightly as he watched Lunette disappear. "She's a fun one isn't she."

Rose eyed him carefully. "I guess."

He sat down next to her, uninvited. "She's single right?"

Rose's eyes narrowed but she nodded. "Why? Are you gonna ask her out?"

Elliot shrugged and grinned. "I'm quidditch captain and an older guy, do you think she'll say yes?"

"Not sure. Perhaps she likes someone else and it doesn't matter to her whether you're quidditch captain or older."

Elliot shrugged again. "I think I like my chances. Plus," he sighed as his smile widened, "She is hot."

"Is that why you gave her a place on the team."

"It was a strong contributing factor, maybe the main factor."

Rose stood angrily and left. Elliot frowned in confusion after her but soon got back his smile as Lunette returned.

 **OCTOBER**

It was Hufflepuffs second quidditch game and it was against Slytherin . Lunette and Elliot had started dating just two days before and within an hour of her saying yes, the whole school knew about it.

Rose woke up early and raced downstairs. Some younger kids got in her way in some of the corridors and she may have been too harsh on them as she was grouchy. She hated mornings. And judging by the fact that her hair was two times as fluffy as usual, mornings hated her. She new it would flatten down later on in the day unless it was foggy, raining or humid.

But she knew waking up early would be worth it as all the quidditch players woke up early to eat breakfast together before going to the changing rooms. Rose spotted Lunette on the end of the Hufflepuff table, not able to eat her toast.

"Rose." She sighed with relief as she saw her friend. "I am freaking out a little bit here."

"Where's Macmillan?"

"Oh, he's already down at the changing rooms, some of the team were already finished their breakfast so he went with them."

"He didn't wait for you?"

"He's just being a good captain."

Rose sat opposite her, she was glad that the rest of the team were far enough away that they could speak.

"Look, I thought you were really good last time you played. A great seeker."

"Thanks." Lunette smiled. "But Gryffindor still beat us, I didn't find the snitch in time."

"I was watching, there was like a second between you and Wesely spotting it. Anyway, today you really need to up your game, you're already good but today you need to win and wipe the floor with those Slytherins!"

Lunette sighed, "Is this because Scorpius is still ignoring you and you're desperate to get any of talking to him and getting things back to usual? Because, teasing him about losing won't help."

"No! Well, it's not just being able to rub in his stuck up face. But Macmillan told me that the main reason you're on the team is because you're hot."

Lunette clenched her fist around her butter knife and slammed it on the table. People started looking her way as she ground the blunt knife into the table. "That git!"

Rose placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "So you know what you have to do right?"

"I have to find the snitch and 'accidentally' crash into Elliot on my way down before making a perfect land while he falls flat on his face."

Rose smiled. "You've spent too much time with me. Your plots for revenge are getting good."

Lunette sighed and managed a smile. "Thanks for telling me. But I actually like Elliot, he's so adventurous and quirky. And he's so passionate about quidditch!"

"So you're still going to go out with him?" Rose couldn't believe her ears.

"I think so, I mean, he's really interesting, plus he's friends with Roxanne and Dominique, so he can't be that bad."

Rose shrugged, "If you say so." she looked over to the Slytherin table where Buchan was sitting between Scorpius and Albus. She had one arm linked loosely with Scorpius's but she was talking and giggling with Albus, who was ignoring her with a fixed grumpy expression.

Rose scowled. Scorpius briefly looked up and saw an angry Rose, he quickly ducked his head down and drained his tea.

"I've got to go." Scorpius mumbled.

"Oh, bye." Holly said absentmindedly without looking at him.

Albus quickly stood up, Holly pouted in disappointment, and followed Scorpius out. "Good luck today." he said when he had caught up.

"Thanks, who are you going to be cheering for?" Scorpius teased.

"Slytherin of course."

"But the love of your life is on the opposing team." he smirked.

Albus lightly punched him in the arm. "She's not the love of my life." he sighed.

"Yes, she is. I know we're kind of too young, but she's definitely someone special to you."

"I'm telling you, she's not- well, I don't know." Albus lost all fight in him and carried on in a hopeless tone. "You're right. I think. I'm not sure. I've never felt this way about anybody, and yes I've never really had a crush before but Lunette- Lunette is- she's- she's something special, just like you said." Albus shrugged and let out a small chuckle. "I'm sorry if that doesn't make any sense. Have you ever felt this way about someone? Their just so special that you can't let go."

Scorpius didn't answer, his mind was unwillingly fixed on a certain fluffy redhead. He shook his head to clear his mind. "Umm, I think so."

Albus nodded but didn't pry. They walked quietly outside.

When Phil and Mel had eventually come down, Rose walked with them to the quidditch pitch. They were passing the greenhouses when Rose noticed someone balancing on the glass roof, walking only on the wooden bars in between each windowpane.

It was professor Longbottom and he seemed to be grabbing at something in thin air. Rose tilted her head and looked at him, confused.

"Umm, I'll catch up with you guys in a bit." She waved off Phil and Mel who had wondered why she had stopped.

Rose strolled closer to the greenhouse, she found a spot that, if she stood on tiptoes, she could see professor Longbottom.

"Er, Uncle Nev- I mean professor Longbottom, I'm not sure it's any of my business, but what in Merlin's name are you doing?"

Longbottom looked startled at the sound of someone's voice and almost toppled off the roof.

"Oh, Rose, it's you. Do me favour will you? Lift up that tin bucket so I can pop something in."

Rose frowned in confusion but complied anyway. Moments later something flew off the roof, Rose stepped sideways to catch it in the bucket.

"Sorry if that was a bit too much to your left- oh you caught it!" Longbottom looked down. "Ready for me to pass down some more?"

"Err, sure?" Rose finally looked down into the bucket, it held three leaping toadstools.

"Right handful they are. A couple of second years accidentally let them loose and now they're hoping all of the place." He grumbled as Rose darted back and forth succeeding each time to get the toadstools into the bucket. "How many are there now?" he sat up and looked down.

"Ten all together sir." Said rose peering once more into the bucket.

Longbottom sighed and began his dissent. "I suppose that will have to do for now, wouldn't want to miss the match!"

Rose grinned. "No sir, wouldn't want to miss it. Louis and Albus were very amusing with their competitive teasing yesterday."

Longbottom laughed. "Yes, I heard about that. And Teddy- I mean professor Lupin is trying not to seem biased, but we all know-"

"He's backing Hufflepuff." Rose grinned. She slid the bucket into the greenhouse and strolled down with one of her favourite teachers, he was dear friend of the family and practically an uncle.

Hufflepuff had not scored a single goal and Slytherin had 50 points before Headmaster Fairweather announced that Tinker had caught the snitch and Hufflepuff had won the game.

Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and Gryffindors all cheered. Even professors Lupin and Longbottom joined the head of Hufflepuff, professor Nye, in a little celebratory jig.

As soon as the players landed Elliot wrapped one arm around Lunette and raised his broom in the air, cheering with the majority of the crowd and with his team. He kissed Lunette and she grinned with him. Rose saw that Lunette had proven Macmillan wrong and had forgiven him.

Rose looked for Albus in the crowd, he had started walking towards the changing rooms to meet Scorpius. Holly was hanging round him, Albus was desperately trying to ignore her. Rose was furious with Buchan. Not only was she the reason Scorpius ignored Rose and was only dating him to get Albus's attention, but she wasn't leaving Albus alone. Both Scorpius and Albus were miserable around her, but for some reason, Rose couldn't work out, Scorpius didn't dump Buchan. This irritated Rose. And that fact that it irritated her, irritated her even more. She let this slip to Lily that night.

Lily couldn't help but smile. "So you're irritated because you're irritated?"

Rose shrugged. "I guess. I mean, I hate Malfoy, why should I care whether or not he dumps some girl who clearly makes him miserable and doesn't really like him."

"Because you care about him."

"No I don't!" Rose gently hit Lily's forearm.

They were sitting on armchairs in the corner of the Gryffindor common so that no one would hear them. Although they could probably be standing in the middle of the common room and shouting their conversation loudly and still no one would hear. James and Lorcan had set off a mini firework display of the ceiling, Mel, Phil and Anna were gossiping with top volume by the fireplace, Sulli, Wesley and Grant were playing exploding snapdragon and Hugo was teaching Roxanne and her friend Mabel to play wizard chess.

"You can deny it to yourself and everybody else, but I know you Rose. Deep down inside you know Malfoy is special to you. And besides, you were friends for quite a while despite family differences. You went through alot together, you can't just switch that off."

"Well," Rose said grumpily as she crossed her arms and slumped in her chair, "when you say it like that, it makes sense. But I don't like what you're saying so I'm choosing to deny it." Rose added sarcastically.

Lily laughed.

"Hey Rose!" James can bounding up to them. A few girls behind him seemed disappointed that he had left them. "Hugo says you're not half bad at quidditch and Uncle Neville-"

"Professor Longbottom." Rose corrected him.

"Yeah, whatever, he said that he was throwing stuff off the roof and you didn't miss a single thing. I didn't believe him."

Lily looked at Rose, shocked. "No way. Our clumsy Rose is good at quidditch!"

Rose shrugged. "I wouldn't say 'good'. I'm ok. I wouldn't believe a word Hugo says though, he always tries to suck up to my around my birthday if he's got me a terrible present."

James laughed. "Be that as it may, I want to see you at tryouts next year. I think you're a bit of a dark horse my dear cousin." He eyed her in mock suspicion and back away slowly.

"So how good are you?" Lily jumped straight in.

Rose chuckled. "you know what, I'm going for a quick walk before bed."

Lily rolled her eyes as Rose stood.

Rose strolled out the common room and ended up outside the library where she heard hushed voices.

"Ugh, he hasn't even noticed me. I'm starting to think dating Scorpius isn't worth it." Holly Buchan scoffed.

"Well then stop dating him and just ask out Potter!" Rose recognised the shrilly voice as that of Mae Bliston.

Buchan huffed. "You'd like that wouldn't you? You don't even care about my love life, all you want is Scorpius to yourself."

"Well it's not that different from you! You don't even care about Scorpius, all you want is Potter. And I don't even know why! He's so awkward to be around and he never says anything to anyone but Scorpius."

"Yeah, but he's hot."

"Not really."

"Well, he's not bad looking. But anyway, you can't pretend that you suddenly care about Scorpius."

"But I do care!"

"No you don't! You flirt for the exact same reason as I do, you think he's hot."

Blinston sighed. "Merlin he's hot. And so dark and mysterious."

"Ugh, I don't know. I find him boring."

"Then dump him!"

"No! I think Albus is starting to acknowledge my presence."

Rose had heard enough and she stomped back to the common room. She wasn't looking where she was going and walked straight into James and Lorcan. She fell over and they peered down at her.

"Whatcha doing down there?" Lorcan grinned, he offered Rose a hand but she batted it away and jumped up.

"Look where you're going Rose. Why are you so distracted?"

"Because I'm trying to think of a plan."

They were suddenly very eager.

"What kind of plan?" James asked in hushed excitement as he and Lorcan guided her to the empty windowsill.

Lily saw them and shot Rose a confused look, Rose brushed her off with a simply wave so she joined Hugo in a game of wizard chess.

"An evil plan? Smart plan? Stupid plan? Masterful plan? Revenge plan? Prank plan?" Lorcan tried to guess.

"Revenge plan." Rose muttered.

"Ah, for Mr Malfoy, well we thought you might come to us. So we brainstormed a little something the other day that might just-" James paced a little in front of her.

"Not for him." Rose said quickly.

"Then who?" Lorcan was confused.

"Yeah, who do you hate more than Malfoy?"

"I thought, you know since he was kind of ignoring you, you would come to us for some big prank to get him back to normal." said Lorcan

"Normal?" Rose was amazed that someone else had noticed.

James shrugged, "Ever since he started going out with that girl he's been, I don't know, different. Plus Al hates her."

Rose only nodded. She stared out of the window, thinking to herself. She had it. A brilliant idea. She hopped off the windowsill and ran out of the common room shouting to a very confused James and Lorcan.

"Thanks guys!"

"What did we do?" Lorcan asked James.

"I think we helped a poor soul get revenge."

"I'm so proud of us." Lorcan hung an arm on James's shoulders.

"We're such lovely people, all this charity work we do and all." James slapped his friend on the back.

"What are you up to?" Fred caught sight of their wide grins.

"Why ever would you think we were up to something?" James asked with mock innocence.

Fred rolled his eyes and slumped off to his dorm.

 **THE NEXT DAY**

After about a month of relative quiet in the corridors, it was startling for the students and teachers alike to hear a sudden outburst of rage when students left their final lesson of the day.

The fifth year Gryffindors and Slytherins had just had potions together. Many teachers and curious students head towards the dungeons to see what Rose and Scorpius had gotten themselves into.

Professor Stockett happened to be near.

"Malfoy! Weasley! What are you up to-" She was shouting but stopped once she realised that it was neither of the usual suspects. "Who are you?"

The student in question punched her bag three times before answering. "Holly Buchan, professor."

"Well what's going on?" Stockett asked briskly.

"My bag keeps on jumping away from me." Buchan angrily spat.

Professor Stockett looked down at the bag. It wasn't moving at all. She looked behind Buchan to the the rest of the Slytherin and Gryffindor class watching innocently, although a few Gryffindors were sniggering. Stockett noticed the absence of a certain Weasley and marched into the classroom.

"-but sir, I don't think there's anything I can do." Rose was trying to reason with her potions professor.

"I'm sorry Weasley, but part of the new Potions O.W.L is teamwork and partnership, I can't change that and- Oh, professor Stockett, may I help you with something."

Stockett's eyes narrowed on Rose. "Professor, has Miss Weasley been in here with you since the end of lesson."

The potions professor thought the question an odd one but answered anyway. "Why, yes. She came to me as soon as the lesson ended."

"Hmm." Stockett was still watching Rose, "Then would you mind telling me where Miss Buchan sits?"

The potions professor pointed to a desk closest to the door.

"And where does Weasley sit?" Stockett smiled, she was sure that she had Rose and even though there appeared to be nothing wrong with Buchan's bag, Stockett was also sure that Rose had done something to upset her.

"Right here, by my desk." the potions professor gestured to the closest desk. "I keep her and Malfoy near the front, that way I can keep an eye on any _misbehaviour_." He sat up straighter in pride. "And I think it's working, I'm sure you have noticed they no longer argue-"

"That's because he doesn't even acknowledge me!" Rose interrupted. "Sorry professor, but I cannot complete the partnership part of the O.W.L if my partner does absolutely nothing. If I didn't do the work, then nothing would happen at all!"

"We've spoken about this on multiple occasions, I cannot change who your partner is, it's too late for that now. Partners are expected to work together despite disputes and other-"

"But it's not a _dispute_ sir," Rose continued. Neither noticed professor Stockett backing away. "He's directly ignoring my presence and not contributing to the work. A _dispute_ would be better! At least when we were _disputing_ he did his equal share of the work load."

The professor stood and sighed. "I can speak to him miss Weasley, but part of the curriculum is for partners to work out their disputes-" he corrected himself when Rose's eyes narrowed at the word, "work out their _problems_ together and collectively contribute to their overall grade. I promise I will speak to Malfoy, meanwhile you need to come up with a way to sort out your problem, try being his friend for a change."

"We were once." Rose mumbled bitterly. "I think I know what I have to do sir." Rose nodded and left. She smiled and thought 'And thank you sir for giving me a perfect alibi. Stockett will not forget our argument too quickly.'

By the time she got out of the classroom, the corridors had cleared except for Buchan who was chasing her leaping bag, whenever she got close to picking it up again, the bag would use her face to bounce off of.

Rose snorted with laughter and quickly ran to the common room.

"Al!" Rose excitedly called to her cousin when she saw him in the Gryffindor common room with Hugo. "What are you doing up here?"

James wrapped Albus in a headlock and ruffled his hair. "Those dungeons are driving him mad I guess. Or he really missed his big brother."

"Get off." Albus was slightly irritable, he pushed James off who laughed and strutted off with Lorcan "Hey Rose, Buchan was being worse than usual and I had to go. Scorpius can deal with her."

"What has she done now?" Rose sat between Hugo and Albus.

"Her bag keeps on jumping away from her and she can't work out why. Every time it jumps she attaches herself to my arm and says that she's scared. Then, of course, Scorpius gets pissed off because she's with me and not him."

"So, he's jealous?" Rose asked uncertainly.

"Not really, he doesn't blame me. But it's a bit embarrassing when his own girlfriend runs to another guy for help. Parkinson keeps on laughing at him."

"Why doesn't he dump her?" Hugo asked.

Albus shrugged. "He said that he has his reason and besides, with Buchan around, Blinston has stopped flirting with him and actually become a proper friend, but I think she's just waiting for them to break up so she can start flirting again."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Well, it's nice to have you around Al."

"Thanks, I'm going to play chess with Hugo if you want to help me win." Albus gave a cheeky grin.

"Actually I've got to write an essay for two people, so I'll be a while."

"Why are you doing someone else's work?"

"It's that potions homework, the one we have to do in pairs, but Malfoy ignores me so for the past few weeks I've had to do all the work."

"Well," Albus thought for a second. "Why don't you make Scorpius do the essay instead? I actually think he'd happy to have something to do other than hang around with his girlfriend who keeps on complaining."

Rose bit her lip. Albus understood.

"You're doing it on your own because you think he might mess it up?"

Rose sighed. "Well, I have been doing all the work, so I know what to write. And I don't want to loose anymore marks. If I do the essay well enough, it might make up for the fact that I'm not working with him."

Albus chuckled. "Alright, I'll see you in a bit. Oh! Rose." Albus stood in excitement "Teddy said that he'll be teaching the patronus charm in defence against the dark arts after Christmas!"

"I have my defence classes with Ravenclaw."

"Yeah, but I'm still excited, aren't you?"

Rose smiled. In truth she was excited, she had spent many nights pouring over the few pages in her text book that wrote about it.

 **TWO WEEKS LATER**

Rose's birthday had been and gone, it had been great. She stuck to her word and when her family sat in a circle in the Gryffindor common room, Dominique and Louis had made sure that Lunette went with them.

Holly Buchan's bag was still hopping and it would only take her a few hours to find out why.

Scorpius had just finished quidditch practise and was walking back to the castle with Albus. Holly had been watching the practise, but only so that she could sit beside Albus. Buchan was trying to catch up with them but her bag kept on trying to get away from her and bounced off of her.

"Albus! Wait for me!"

Albus groaned, Scorpius rolled his eyes but they kept on walking at their usual pace.

"Please, _please_ , dump her." Albus muttered. "I don't think I can stand it for much longer."

"I know what you mean. I was going to a week ago-"

"What happened? Why didn't you?"

"I couldn't. She wouldn't let me speak, she kept on whining about her bag. I've tried to fix it on multiple occasions but nothing sees to work."

"What in the name of-?" Albus strolled off towards the greenhouses and Scorpius followed.

Longbottom waving his wand around like a mad man.

"Sir? What's going on?" Scorpius asked. "Is it those toadstools again?"

"Hello there." Longbottom smiled and waved. "Yeah, two of them ran away about a month ago. The weather is fine today so I thought I'd look again."

"Er, ok sir. We'll see you on Monday for class, then, I guess." Albus said slowly.

"Right you are." Longbottom wasn't really listening as he was waving his wand around again.

Holly ran towards Albus and Scorpius had been. "What did they want?" she demanded.

Longbottom didn't hear.

Holly rolled her eyes and almost shouted. "Sir! What did they want?"

"Miss Buchan, that is no way to speak to a member of staff!" Longbottom snapped. "Now, can you see any leaping toadstools around your feet? Two of them hopped away a couple of weeks ago, now I'm pretty sure one is one the roof again." he grumbled to himself.

Holly's bag jumped again, she tried to chase it around the greenhouse but Longbottom made a dive for it.

"What have you done to your bag?" Longbottom asked suspiciously.

Holly growled. " _I_ didn't do anything, someone _else_ did."

Her bag jumped again, but this time it made a loud pop.

Out jumped a leaping toadstool.

"Young lady, I could give you a detention for stealing supplies- hang on," he looked closer at the foot of the toadstool. "Someone used a semi-permanent sticking charm on him." Longbottom laughed. "You students and your antics never cease to amuse me." He passed Holly back her bag. "You'll be wanting this."

"When I find out who did this..." Holly spat as she stormed angrily off to the castle.

Rose had been listening around the corner and saw her chance.

"Hello sir." She waved to Longbottom.

"Ah! Rose, I need your help, I think my bucket full of leaping toadstools has hopped off towards the castle, do you mind fetching it for me?"

"Or course sir." Rose almost skipped away and found the bucket just inside the main entrance. Holly was walking along the corridor just above and was getting closer to the stairs. Rose spotted who she needed.

"Malfoy!" Rose ran and smacked into Scorpius, they both toppled over, Rose landing on top of him. Rose had been carrying something hard, heavy and cold and it had hit his knee. A few people laughed. "You know you owe me?" She said quickly.

Scorpius stood and dusted himself off.

"I helped you with that charm last year and now you owe me, right?" she was speaking even quicker and kept on glancing over her shoulder.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "I guess." This was the first thing he had said to her in a couple of weeks.

"Good." Rose almost smiled. "Hold this for a few minutes then give it to professor Longbottom." She shoved, with much force, a tin bucket at his chest, then she ran off again skidding around the corner.

Scorpius, still in mild pain, looked down at the bucket which was full of leaping toadstools. He scowled in confusion but stuck to his word and held onto in. Albus peered over his shoulder.

"What in Merlin's name is this for?" Albus was just as confused as Scorpius.

"I have no-" He didn't finish. Someone was screaming at him from the top of the stairs.

" _YOU_!"

It was Holly Buchan.

"HOW _DARE_ YOU HUMILIATED _ME_ LIKE THAT! WE ARE THROUGH MALFOY!" and she stormed off to the Slytherin common room. Her friends trailing behind her, trying to comfort her. Except for Mae Blinston who was grinning from ear to ear. She blew a kiss at Scorpius, flicked her hair and skipped after her friends.

Scorpius stood stunned for a few moments and then turned to Albus, still holding the bucket.

"What just happened?"

Albus shrugged.

"This is kind of good right?" Scorpius asked weakly.

"I think so."

They sighed and said together. "No more Holly."

 **NOVEMBER**

Scorpius was still slightly confused as to what had happened with Holly, but Albus advised him against thinking too much.

"Seriously, if you go down that road, I don't think you'll like what you find."

Scorpius and Rose were back to arguing and hexing each other in the corridors, yet no one, except Lunette and Lily, knew why Rose couldn't help but smile as she walked away, even with buck teeth or a book that bites.

One day after Albus's birthday, he and Scorpius were in the library trying to complete a muggle studies essay. Lunette and her boyfriend, Elliot Macmillan were sitting quietly near them doing their own homework. Albus kept on glancing at her, she didn't seem upset but she was definitely not her usual self.

As Lunette was writing, Elliot looked up at her and stared with narrowed eyes as if he were sizing her up. They had been dating for almost a month.

Lunette noticed Elliot staring and gave him a small smile. Elliot did not return it. Lunette frowned but brushed it off by standing to get a book. Elliot followed her and gently led her out of the library. Albus heard him say.

"-talk for just a second."

Albus frowned at the back of Elliot's head.

"Well that can't be good." Scorpius mumbled.

Albus leant closer to Scorpius and whispered. "Why do guys keep on breaking up with her? I mean, was is it about her that they don't like? She kind, funny, pretty, hardworking, a talented seeker and she's a metamorphmagus! Am I the only one who thinks that's awesome?"

"Well, she doesn't really show or tell people. But you're right, it is pretty cool."

Lunette angrily burst into the library, scooped up her books and marched out again. Before she stepped through the doors, she stopped herself, took a deep breath and calmly made her way back to her common room.

"Well that _really_ can't be good." Scorpius remarked as they both watched Lunette leave.

Albus stood quickly and followed her without a word to Scorpius, but he knew what was going on.

Lunette thought her heard someone following close behind her, she took a sharp left and pressed herself flat against the wall. Albus came around the corner as Lunette stuck her foot for her follower to trip on. Albus fell face first on the floor.

"Ow." groaned Albus as he sat up a little and rubbed his nose.

Lunette crouched down beside him and helped him sit up properly against the wall. "Sorry, I thought it was someone else following me."

"Who did you think it was?"

Lunette shrugged. "There's some Slytherin in the year below who bullies everyone and I really don't want to run into him right now."

"But why did you trip me?"

Lunette again shrugged. Albus chuckled.

"You've been spending too much time with Rose. So how are you?"

she raised her eyebrows. "I'm assuming you figured out what happened with Macmillan."

"No longer on a first name basis?"

"You could say that."

"Why? I just don't get it. Any guy would be lucky to date you, so why are these ungrateful guys dumping you?"

"You really don't want to know." Lunette said with a sigh and stared at the floor. "You're my friend Albus, I don't want you to think any less of me."

Albus gently lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. "There's nothing you could ever say that would make me think ill of you."

Lunette's hands became hot and her cheeks turned red. She quickly stood up. "Good night Albus." she sounded slightly flustered but Albus assumed she was upset about Elliot Macmillan.

Scorpius piled up his and Albus's books and carried them all back to their dormitory. The books were partially obstructing his vision, but as it was almost curfew and try few students were in the corridors, he wasn't worried about knocking into someone.

This was a silly assumption.

Rose was on prefect duty and walked right into Scorpius. Books flew everywhere. They were both quick enough to cast a freezing charm on the books at the same time, they hung in the air. Rose and Scorpius both held in a smile. Their similarities were sometimes very obvious but they were enemies now and did not want to acknowledge any common factors. Rose stood up and brushed off her robes.

Scorpius kneeled grabbed all the books the stood watching Rose expectantly.

"What?"

He raised his eyebrows. "No apology Weasley? You just pushed over a fellow student. tut tut. As a prefect, you should be setting an example." Scorpius grinned slyly.

Rose took a deep breath, she was not going to shout at him, that's what he wanted. She stuck a hand to help him up and put on a sarcastic sickly sweet voice. "Naww, you poor boy. Let me help you up. We wouldn't want the innocent little rich boy getting his robes dirty now would we?"

Scorpius gripped her hand too hard as she pulled him up. But she ignored it and continued. "Now, that stack of books looks to heavy for a delicate flower like yourself, your noodle arms must me tired. Do you want me to carry some of them all the way down to the dungeons?"

Scorpius winked "I'm fine thanks Weasley, I'm a big boy now. I can do it all by myself."

"Well done Malfoy!"

Rose's ears suddenly turned pink as she realised that Scorpius was still holding her hand. She dropped it like a hot potato and they both looked anywhere but at each other. Wesley McLaggen was coming around the corner. He frowned at the awkward pair.

"Why is it that whenever the corridors are empty and it's almost past curfew, I find you guys together and not arguing?" He asked suspiciously

"Mind your own business McLaggen." Scorpius growled, he finally looked at Rose who was staring at an empty wall. For some reason he wanted to see her blush at the ears again. He was irritated at himself for thinking along these lines. "And you never know, we might be secretly snogging and you've just interrupted us."

He got what he wanted, Rose's ears were bright red.

"McLaggen, hold his books."

Wesley hesitated.

"Now." she said more forcefully and Wesley quickly took the stack of books out of Scorpius's arms. Rose kicked Scorpius in the crotch and he almost crumpled to the floor.

Still groaning, Scorpius found his stack of books being handed back to him as he watched Rose storm off with McLaggen following her.

Once back in his dormitory, Scorpius found Albus banging his head repeatedly against the bedpost. This wasn't an unusual sight so Scorpius simply went about separating their books, putting his away and trying to find his pyjamas. He was tucked into bed when he talked to Albus.

"Lunette again?" he guessed.

Albus nodded then flopped head first onto his bed. "I'm stuck in the friend zone for all of eternity. The universe hates me."

"Nope."

"Yes it does."

"Maybe Lunette just isn't the one for you. I mean, she's only the first girl you've really had a crush on."

"She's the first girl I've ever told anyone that I've had a crush on."

Scorpius's brows knit together in confusion, so did Albus's

"That made more sense in my head."

Scorpius smiled.

"Look, Scorpius, I don't really tell anyone if I have a crush on someone. But I know what a crush is and I know that Lunette is different."

Scorpius sighed and snuggled into his bed. "Alright, if you say so. I believe you mate."

"Thanks." Albus got under his covers.

"Um, Albus, you're still in your robes."

Albus let out a long and suffering groan. "Today I have decided to sleep in my robes."

"Can't be bothered to change?"

"There is literally no will power to get up and change."

Scorpius laughed and rolled over. He stared at the ceiling, his hand still felt slightly warm from when Rose had held it.

"So you're secretly dating Malfoy?" Wesley laughed as he and Rose walked back to the Gryffindor dormitories.

"No you idiot, he just said that to piss me off."

"Yeah, sure." Wesley scoffed incredulously.

Rose punched him in the arm.

"Merlin! That actually hurt!"

"That's because it was meant to. Don't piss me off McLaggen." Rose marched into the common room leaving Wesley to whimper and rub his hurt arm.

Once inside, Rose spotted James slumped on an armchair, he was completely alone.

He sat up and looked between Rose and Wesley.

"You punched him?" he guessed.

Rose nodded and Wesley rubbed his arm again.

"That's my girl." he grinned at Rose.

Wesley sulked up to his dormitory and Rose sat beside James. She was silent for a while and watched him as he fiddled with the corner of a cushion.

"Why are you up so late, why are you feeling depressed and where's Lorcan?" Rose finally spoke.

James sighed. "Am I that obvious."

Rose gave a encouraging smile. "You're my cousin, I know you well."

"Do you remember Lucile? Well, she's going out with some Ravenclaw guy. She's the only girl I've dated more than once."

Rose's eyes narrowed as she sized him up. "You really liked her don't you?"

"Yep, I was like some love-sick fool. She didn't feel the same way and she hated all my pranks. She called them childish."

"Well you are in sixth year."

"I know, but it's fun. And I hate to sound bigheaded, but me and Lorcan are legends now. Up with those like the Marauders and Uncle Fred and George."

Rose had no idea what to say.

"No pearls of wisdom?" James raised his eyebrows.

"If you want that go to Dom or Lucy, I've got nothing." Rose shrugged. "But, I know what it's like to have someone you like beyond all reason and despite everything, go out with someone else. Merlin, even Albus knows what that's like."

"Really? Al has experienced this? My little brother has a love life?"

"I wouldn't say that. But he has experienced this heart shattering, gut punching pain a few times. And even now he's going through it. You should talk to him, neither of you may be able to help each other, but at least you understand each other's pain."

James nodded. "Any other of our cousins having love life problems? Or is it just me and Al?"

Rose thought for a second. "I know there might be something going on between Roxanne and the Ravenclaw quidditch captain."

"Oh, Mosi Smith? I love that guy, he's pretty badass." James chuckled. "He's one of the guys that Roxanne and Dom hang around with. I think it's pretty obvious when a guy likes a girl."

"Umm, no it isn't."

"Umm, yes it is." James imitated her tone. "Like when that Hufflepuff guy liked you, that was overly obvious and that other guy kept on trying to defend you from Malfoy. Ooh! And Malfoy keeps on hexing you."

"Malfoy hates me and I hate him."

"You can keep on saying to yourselves, but I don't believe it." He stood and didn't allow Rose a chance to argue with him. "I will say this though, he is very good at hiding his feelings from everyone else. I mean the majority of students think you truly do hate each other." and he quickly disappeared up to his dormitory before Rose could correct him.

Rose rolled her eyes and went to bed. she rolled over and stared at the stars. She couldn't help but think about what James had said.

 **DECEMBER**

It was a Hogsmeade weekend and Rose wasn't sure that she wanted to go. Phil and Mel would not be there as they had both been given detentions for not completing their history essays despite Rose telling them repeatedly that they had to get a move on and start them, she had even offered to help. But Phil and Mel had both developed crushes on Wesley McLaggen and Grant Hathaway.

The only person who managed to pull Rose out of the library, away from a book about planning revision and make her put on a coat gloves scarf and hat was Lunette.

"Oh, come on Rose, it's our last Hogsmeade weekend this year! We have to go. Besides, my Hufflepuff friends won't stop asking me why Elliot broke up with me so I need to get away from them for the day."

Rose sighed. "Fine then. I'll see you later Katie." She waved the Katie Webb, she was a Ravenclaw girl who seemed to always be in the library and Rose often joined her to study. She didn't talk very much and she was always ready to help, she and Rose got along well.

"And I haven't had much time to hang out with you either! What with my quidditch practise and you stressing over O. which aren't for quite a few months."

"I said fine! I'll go. Just let me grab my coat."

Rose ran up to her dormitory while Lunette leaned against the wall beside the portrait, smiling smugly. The portrait of the fat lady started talking to Lunette and they both got along quite well.

Rose and Lunette shuffled in the snow until they reached the wizard town. Lunette suggested the Three Broomsticks to get out of the cold and Rose readily agreed. Lunette spotted Albus and Scorpius in the corner of the inn and dragged Rose over to them. Scorpius and Rose scowled at each other as Rose cautiously sat beside Lunette.

"Well, this is nice! I was just telling Rose that I haven't spent enough time with my best friends recently." Lunette grinned hugging her hot chocolate.

"You consider us your best friends?" Scorpius forgot Rose was there briefly.

"Definitely." Lunette wrapped one arm around Rose's shoulders. "You three were the first friends I ever had in England. Some people in my old school thought I was strange because of being a Metamorphmagus, even my friends only hung out with me with the condition that I didn't change. I know you won't repeat that to anyone, I trust you. Thank you so much for accepting me."

She smiled sweetly at them and raised her mug. "Rose, you're the greatest friend I've ever had, Albus you're the sweetest friend I've ever had, and Scorpius, I don't know you very well but I like you."

"It's not _your_ fault you don't know him very well." Rose muttered.

"Oh shut it Weasley, just because _you're_ so quick to judge-" Scorpius growled

"How _dare_ you!" Rose interrupted. "I _tried_ didn't I? You don't exactly make it easy-"

"Well _maybe_ I didn't want _you_ hanging around-"

"Well _maybe_ that's the one thing I do know about you! I was just spare luggage that you couldn't wait to throw-"

"You always just assume the worst of people!"

"Well I wasn't wrong about you!"

"Are you _asking_ me to hex you or something?!" Scorpius stood

"You know full well that I could do _a lot_ more damage-" Rose pushed out her chair and stared him dead in the eyes

"Ugh! You're such a pillock Weasley!"

"Oh, says the gormless twat!"

"Prat!"

"Bell end!"

"Daft tosser!"

"Areshole!"

"Woah!" Lunette grabbed the shoulders of both Scorpius and Rose, making them both stop arguing. "I thought you guys used to be friends! Please, just for now, can you stop arguing?" she looked between them both. "Please, for me?"

Rose sighed. "Of course Lunette. For you and only you." Rose took a long sip from her butterbeer, glaring at Scorpius.

"Sure, and I would love to get to know you better." Scorpius nodded at Rose.

Their usual truce seemed to have been called. They spoke to Albus and Lunette, but that was it.

Lucy and Fred walked past the Three Broomsticks. Lucy had her head stuck in a checklist of things to do as for Head Girl duties but she noticed when Fred, her cousin and best friend, had stopped walking beside her and was peering into the inn.

"What's going on?" Lucy asked him.

"Shhh." Fred beckoned her over to look through the window. "Is that Rose and Malfoy sitting at a table together and not arguing?"

Lucy squinted. "I believe you're right. You know, Molly will love this." Lucy wrote a small note on her parchment.

"Why's that?"

"She always liked Malfoy. When the rest of us kind of stopped talking to him because of his spat with Rose, Molly still talks to him."

"Molly always sees the good in people. And does Lunette Tinker, I think. Look, she's in there with them. She must be the one holding the peace."

 **CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS**

It was Christmas morning at the Burrow and everybody was awake. Most of the grandchildren were scattered around while the parents and grandparents were helping with the cooking and cleaning. Grandma Molly Weasley was bustling in the kitchen and attempting to get her pregnant granddaughter, Victoire (the eldest daughter of Bill and Fluer) to sit down and relax.

"Teddy!" the older Molly Weasley shouted for Teddy Lupin, the husband of Victoire and the godson of Harry.

"Yes Mrs Weasley?" Teddy had been flying above the house and he swooped down to hover by the open back door.

"Please help me to convince Victoire to sit down. She keeps on offering to do the carrots and won't take no for an answer!"

Teddy grinned at Victoire who was sneaking chopped carrots off the pile Mrs Weasley had been making. "Something tells me she's not trying to help."

Mrs Weasley spun around and caught Victoire with a handful of carrots. Victoire grinned and spoke with an innocent tone. "You know what, maybe I will go and have sit down in the next room."

Mrs Weasley chuckled and shooed her off, Teddy helped his wife off the chair and into the living room.

Rose, Louis and Albus were getting rid of gnomes in the back garden.

Lucy and Fred had been reading a book but stopped to chat to Teddy and Victoire as they sat opposite her. Dominique and Roxanne were playing exploding snap dragon. Ron was playing chess with his son. James and Lily were racing around on their new brooms with Ginny.

George and his wife Angelina were given the duty of shovelling the garden path but were more interested in charming snowballs to hit each other and occasionally Ginny if she flew too near them. Hermione, her father, Harry and Bill were helping Mrs Weasley in the kitchen. Mr Weasley was cleaning the hallways with Charlie, Fleur and his granddaughter Molly.

Rose grabbed another gnome by it's ankles and started swinging it in circles as she spoke. "So, do either of you know why grandma is making us clean up so much?" She let go of the grouchy gnome and he flew over the hedge. "I mean, I know we de-gnome all the time and I know grandma always cooks too much, but today she's cooking more than usual and for some reason she's making granddad Weasley clean the hallways. When do we ever clean hallways?"

Louis shrugged. "I know what you mean, when I went in earlier she dumped a cold wet cloth on my face because a had a tiny smudge of mud on my nose. That's when Victoire couldn't stop laughing."

Albus grinned. "You know, it's not just grandma, I think Aunt Hermione is a bit nervous. Her hair isn't as fluffy today."

Rose chuckled. "She tried to use Sleekeazy's Hair Potion, but these days her hair needs a lot more than it used to. She kind of gave up because we were running late."

Albus and Louis frowned.

"You were the first to arrive!" Louis said as he picked up another gnome. Albus laughed and dropped the gnome he was holding, it ran back to it's hole but popped it's head up straight away.

"How thick could you get?" said Rose is disbelief as she grabbed a gnome who was running straight at her.

There were only a few gnomes left when the three of them heard a loud pop and then excited voices. The three of them sent each other confused faces, they saw Ginny land and walk back to the house while James and Lily landed beside Albus.

"What's going on?" Lily asked.

"I think there's someone here." James said. "Did you hear that faint pop? Well, they told us in apparition classes that that's the noise you make when you're actually successful."

The five of them sneaked up to the kitchen window to peer inside. Whoever had just arrived were not in there anymore.

"Must be in the living room." Louis whispered to his cousins.

They began crawling to the living room window when Rose suddenly stood up.

"Well this is stupid. Let's just go in!" she rolled her eyes and marched to the back door.

Louis, Lily, James and Albus looked at each other and shrugged before running off after her.

"Why is she always the voice of reason?" Albus groaned. "Can't she ever, just for once, be wrong about something."

"Well if she's ever wrong, we'll know it's an imposter." said a soft voice coming from the living room door.

They sharply turned to their left and saw Lunette standing there, smiling brightly at them. Her hair was green and had red and gold stripes throughout. She wore a yellow top with a big silver bow on it, a long blue coat and grey jeans tucked into blue boots, one with yellow laces and the other with silver laces.

Albus had lost all ability to speak at the sight of her. Lily gave her a hug while James and Rose gave her pats on the back.

"So how come you're here?" Lily asked excitedly.

"Well, my grandparents in France are having an argument at the moment. Last time we visited during an argument, the house almost burnt down. But luckily back then we were still living in France and we ran home. We were going to spend Christmas just the three of us but Mrs Granger-Weasley introduced my parents to your grandparents and we were invited for Christmas day."

"I wish you all the luck in the world." Said James rolling his eyes. "We're all mad here."

Rose grinned at him.

"What?" James looked suspiciously at Rose, then groaned. "Oh no, did I just quote something without realising again?!"

Rose's grin grew wider. "Yep, the Cheshire Cat tells Alice that 'we're all mad here'. I used to read _Alice in Wonderland_ every summer," she suddenly frowned. "but then Hugo lost it."

Lily's eyes narrowed, she knew the truth was that Hugo had given it to Scorpius.

"Hey Albus." Lunette gave a small wave and smiled sweetly at him.

"Er-er-um-h-h." was the only nice that came out of his mouth.

Louis started to giggle so James dragged him and Lily out of the room.

Albus coughed and managed a complete sentence. "How long are you staying?"

"Well, my parents are going home tonight, but" she turned to face Rose, "Your Mrs Granger-Weasley said that if you don't mind me staying in your room, I can stay at Rose's house until the 27th."

Rose's eyes widened with excitement. "That would be so much fun! I never really had sleepovers, when I was at muggle primary school nobody was allowed to come over just incase they saw something and now I'm at Hogwarts I pretty much have sleepovers with my Gryffindor friends every night."

"So will you be visiting Rose's house?" Lunette asked Albus.

"Well, actually, Boxing Day I usually visit Scorpius."

Rose rolled her eyes.

"Oh, well then we better spend as much time together today!" Lunette linked arms with Albus and Rose. "What do you want to do?"

"Well, the garden still needs de-gnomeing." Rose winced.

"Gnomes! I missed out on doing those, you guys did them in first year right?"

Albus shrugged. "I think so."

"This is exciting." Lunette grinned and made her way outside.

Albus and Rose looked at each other and spoke at the same time. "Is it?"

Albus was about to run after Lunette but Rose grabbed his arm. "You're loving this."

"Aren't you? One of our best friends is here."

Rose smiled. "You know what, I think grandma might want me to help her with something else, you go ahead and deal with the gnomes, Lunette will happily help."

Albus knew what she was up to, "Rose, we're just friends."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "You like her a great deal more than that, and now she's single."

"No Rose, I can't. I love being her friend-"

"But not as much as you love her."

Albus slumped on the nearest chair and hit his forehead on the table. "I can't Rose, I can't ask her out. I'll risk losing her as a friend. I'd rather suffer in silence then to not speak to her at all because I opened up about how I feel. Besides, I'm only sixteen, I don't know what love is."

"Well, neither do I. But I'm pretty sure this is it." Rose put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Al, you do what you think is right. Sorry, I just really think that you guys would make each other happy. Like Mr Bingley and Jane Bennet."

Albus sat up and squinted. "Book characters again?"

"Yep, _Pride and Prejudice_. They are both very agreeable characters and, as Mr Bennet says, ' _I have not a doubt of your doing very well together. Your tempers are by no means unlike. You are each of you so complying, that nothing will ever be resolved on; so easy, that every servant will cheat you; and so generous, that you will always exceed your income'_."

Albus rolled his eyes. "You need to stop reading so much."

Rose scoffed and said sarcastically. "Fat chance of that ever happening."

Albus joined Lunette in the freezing cold to rid of gnomes while Rose was put on messenger/spy duty. Her grandma wanted to know that everybody was doing what they were asked to do and that they were doing it properly. Rose took great pleasure in getting James told of nearly every five minutes and Victoire was told off every now and then because she was trying to help her Aunt Ginny mend an old clock.

After dinner, Rose and Albus would normally sneak out and hangout in the garden, but she couldn't find him anywhere. Rose plopped down on the sofa beside Teddy and smiled at him.

"So, professor Lupin, apparently we're doing patronuses when we get back."

"Don't call me professor when we're not at school. Come one Rose, I've known you since you were born. I was even allowed to babysit you once."

Rose chuckled. "Yeah, once."

"Yeah, I think I taught you the word 'mine'. Your mum was not impressed."

"Anyway, Teddy, do you have any tips for creating a patronus?"

He thought for a while before answering. "The key to a patronus is a good happy memory, I would suggest you spend a while really thinking about it."

"Thanks-"

"Rose!" Albus called from outside. "Come on, we've been waiting for ages."

Rose quickly stood. "See ya Teddy!"

She ran outside and grabbed a broom out of the shed. She couldn't see Albus or Lunette and decided to circle the house a few times. No one could see her as she kept out of view of the windows. At last she spotted them sitting in a tree watching her. Rose rolled her eyes and went soaring towards them. Suddenly something came flying in her direction, Rose tried to grab it but the charmed snowball melted in her hand. She frowned with confusion but continued to make her way towards the tree. This time multiple balls, not snowballs this time, came flying her way. She caught a few one handed, hit some of them away from her using both her arms and the end of her broom and even managed to throw most of them back at the tree. None of them went passed her, she hit or caught every single one.

When the throwing finally stopped, Rose landed by the base of the tree and climbed up to join Lunette and Albus.

"What in Merlin's name was that for?" Rose snugly wedged herself between two branches.

"Why aren't you on the quidditch team?" Lunette was shocked.

Rose shrugged.

"Please Rose, promise me something. Promise me that next year you will, _at least_ , tryout for keeper."

"But James is the quidditch captain, I don't want to get a place on the team simply because he's my cousin."

Lunette raised her eyebrows. "Seriously Rose, after what we just saw, there is no way that anybody could question why you were put on the team. In fact, you're normally so clumsy, most people would probably not believe how well you handle a broom."

Rose sighed. She turned to Albus. "Did you put her up to this?"

Albus grinned. "She didn't believe Hugo when he said that you have never fallen off a broom. It was Lily's idea to throw stuff at you."

Rose scowled. "Where are those two now? I'd like to give them a piece of my mind."

"Hugo thought you would say that, so they decided to stay inside so you couldn't blame them." Lunette explained.

"And Lily said, that if you tell them off, Hugo will tell everybody that you're good at quidditch and embarrass you by making you fly in front of everybody." Albus grinned.

"Fine." she said grumpily. "Sixth year, I promise I will tryout for keeper."

"Yay! The powers of peer pressure." Lunette laughed and they joined in.

 **JANUARY**

"Today, we move on to patronuses, something I'm sure many of you are excited for." professor Lupin announced to his Gryffindor and Ravenclaw class.

Excited gasps and whispers filled the room.

"Alright! Settle down. This very advanced magic and probably one of the hardest charms you will ever face. A patronus is a kind of positive force and, for the wizard or witch who can conjure one, it becomes like a shield or a messenger. It will protect you from those such as dementors. Now we spoke about these creatures last lesson, so you all know how important a patronus charm is. Everybody stand and place your belonging at the back of the class."

The class obeyed and Teddy flicked his wand a few ties making the desks and chairs fly to sides and leave a space in the middle of the room.

"For now I want silence except for the muttering of the patronus incantation which is _expecto patronum_."

There were mutters around the room as the students copied the words.

"Do not try to conjure it yet. For this to work I would like you to get into your own space, away from any distracting people. And on you're own you need to think of a memory, a very happy memory, a very powerful memory. Now close your eyes," his voice became softer. "concentrate. Take your memory, allow it to fill you up, lose yourself within it and then, when you're ready, speak the incantation. Do not be too hasty. Take your time."

Deep breaths could be heard from each and every student. Mel did not quite understand and kept on opening her eyes. Lupin saw her and silently guided her out of the classroom and into his office to explain to her once more.

"Do you understand?" he whispered.

Mel nodded.

"Very good, now if you still don't, just silently come to me and I will help you."

A few Ravenclaws spoke the incantation, but nothing was happening. Rose was finding their muttering slightly disrupting. She needed to immerse herself in her happy memory. She took a deep breath and thought about going to the beach with Albus.

" _Expecto patronum_." she spoke at last. Nothing happened, she could feel in her wand that nothing had happened. She opened her eyes to see that nobody had been successful yet.

"Everybody open there eyes. I didn't expect any of you to do it the first time, don't worry about that. That would have been extraordinary. As a matter or interest, does anybody want to tell me what memory they chose? You don't have to, I know that sometimes they can be quite personal."

Rose's hand shot up along with a couple of Ravenclaws.

"Yes Weasley?"

"I thought of the beach and family holidays."

"Hmm. Anyone else?"

Katie Webb answered. "When I first read a charms book knowing that I was witch."

Lupin only nodded. "Mr Leyton, what about you?"

Daniel Leyton had been whispering to his friend on the corner when Lupin had asked him.

"Oh, my first date with Rose." he said in mock triumph.

Rose scowled and spun on the spot with her wand out ready to hex him when Lupin jumped in the way.

"No need for that Weasley!"

Rose reluctantly lowered her wand.

"We are meant to be happy in here, one more remark like that Leyton and it will be a detention for you. Now none of these examples are good enough, not nearly good enough. These memories have to be strong."

Rose thought of a new one, closed her eyes and allowed it to fill her.

"Are we ready to try again?"

Rose muttered to incantation few times more. So did the rest of the class. Rose opened her eyes and really concentrated on herself. Lupin saw that something was happening.

"Keep trying Rose." He muttered encouragingly as he walked past her on his way to circle the room. "Say it stronger, be firm."

She took his advice and a small blueish silver ribbon that looked like smoke came from her wand. Excitement burst in her chest, something was happening.

"A full bodied patronus is the most difficult to produce, but a shield form and still be useful against a variety of opponents. Stay focussed, only then can your patronus protect you."

Students all had their eyes open now and were concentrating like never before.

Rose thought once more or her memory. " _Expecto_ _patronum_." She said with more authority and out burst a fox from her wand.

"Brilliant!" Lupin exclaimed from behind her as he was helping another student.

A few other students had their patronuses burst out too.

"Don't worry if you can't do it today, I'll be available all week if anybody wants to pop in and have some help." Lupin made his way to the front of the class. "Everyone to the back of the class please." Once they all obeyed her moved the desks and chairs back for them to sit and listen him for the last couple of minutes of class. "Weasley, you were the first to produce a patronus. For those who didn't see it, can you tell us what animal it was?"

"A fox, sir."

Lupin smiled. "And what was the memory you used?"

Rose's ears turned red and she stared at the desk.

"No worries, sometimes these happy memories can be personal and we must respect each other's privacy." He picked up a book from his desk and flicked through the pages. "This is a muggle book I found very useful, it lists characteristics and facts about animals. Ah, here we go, the fox. Wisdom, intelligence, adaptability, calm, mysterious, prone to stand out and mischievous." he grinned at Rose.

The patronus class with Slytherin and Hufflepuff followed along the same lines.

"Malfoy, concentrate harder! More authority in your voice!" Lupin could see wisps coming from Scorpius's wand.

Within moments of a raven soaring out of Scorpius's wand, a rabbit popped out of Lunettes. While the raven soared above the heads of all the students, the rabbit hopped in circles around Lunette's head twice before it bounced off to Albus and jumped through his legs. Albus and Lunette laughed together at the funny little patronus.

"Now Potter!" Lupin saw how happy Albus was a knew that if he could just concentrate for a few moments, the patronus charm would succeed.

Albus nodded, took one quick look at Lunette who was still grinning at the rabbit now chasing her wand, and muttered to himself the incantation. What looked like a small stripy horse, just shorter than Albus himself came bursting forth.

Lupin clapped and laughed in astonishment. "A zebra! Well never have I seen a zebra patronus. Potter, as always, you are full of surprises."

 **THE NEXT DAY**

Scorpius couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Would you please just put that book down for a few minutes? I'm trying to eat my lunch here."

He watched as Albus ignored him and turned yet another page.

Scorpius sighed. "I never thought I would be saying those words to you."

"Well listen to this, a zebra's stripes act like fingerprint, each individual's pattern is unique. Foals recognise their mothers by the pattern of their stripes, as well as by scent and call. Interesting, does this mean that I'm unique?"

"Very." Scorpius mumbled and slammed the book for him.

"Rose!" Albus spotted his cousin leaving the hall and beckoned her over.

"What is it Al? Are you ok?"

"What was your patronus?"

She beamed as she answered. "A fox."

Scorpius scoffed. "Typical."

Rose scowled. "What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

"You're a loner." Scorpius said disinterestedly.

"Just because I don't like you, doesn't mean that I don't like everybody else." she retorted.

"Here it is! Foxes show great caring, adaptability and intelligence when raising their young, they protect their families with surprising loyalty. Ooh, did you know that in May 2009, a fox pup was caught in a trap in for two weeks, but survived because its mother brought it food every day. Foxes are known to be friendly and curious."

Rose gave a smug huff in Scorpius's direction, then turned to Albus. "What are you reading?"

"That muggle animal book Teddy- professor Lupin was reading. He leant it to me. Did you know that rabbits are a symbol of self sacrifice, humility and luck and are often playful. Mother rabbits in the wild spend only a few moments each day with their babies in order to avoid drawing attention to them from predators. The babies grow quickly and continue to live together as a family. Isn't that sweet?"

Rose's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Who has a rabbit patronus?"

"Lunette." Albus replied dreamily.

"I thought as much." Roses nodded and grinned. "Well I'm off to-"

"Ravens are a symbol of creation and destruction, wisdom through intelligence, observation and challenge. Despite their mischievous nature, ravens seem capable of feeling empathy. They remember birds they like and will respond in a friendly way to certain birds for at least three years after seeing them. Although a flock of ravens is called an 'unkindness,' the birds appear to be anything but." Albus looked up at Rose's confused face. "Scorpius has a raven patronus. Hmm, foxes and ravens don't seem that different." he grinned "Funny that."

Scorpius finally looked at Albus and scowled before he realised that Rose had the same expression.

"Both intelligent, often alone, symbol of wisdom, mischief and loyalty." Albus continued.

Rose and Scorpius started defending themselves by shouting at Albus over one another, insisting that they weren't alike.

Albus folded his arms and laughed at them both. "And zebras can be seen as capable, have the ability look at opposing viewpoints and to work through problems. That's probably how I managed to stay friends with both of you at the same time."

Rose's eyes widened with excitement. "Your patronus is a zebra?!"

Albus nodded.

"That's so cool! You have to show me some time, but right now I've got magical creatures class to go to."

"That doesn't start for ages." Scorpius muttered.

"Actually, arsehole, it starts in about five minutes and I know that it takes awhile to get down to the forbidden forest."

Scorpius hurriedly scooped up his belongings and ran out of the hall.

Rose scoffed and strolled off in the same direction, sending a tripping charm at Scorpius. Albus laughed and started eating his toast which was cold as he had left it for too long.

"Albus!" Lunette plonked herself next to him and grinned. "You've got a free period too?"

Albus's eyes widened at the sight of her and spoke with his mouthful. "Yeah I do, do you have a free period?" Albus realised how silly he sounded just moments later.

"Umm, well yes." Lunette said in an awkward and uncertain tone. "I just asked if you had one too, I assumed that you understood that I was implying that I also-"

Albus closed his eyes and nodded. "Yeah, no, I got that. I was just-" he shrugged. "I'm- oh, ugh- sorry." His cheeks were getting reder.

Anna Gardener, a Gryffindor who shared a dormitory with Rose, was strutting past but stopped as soon as she saw a very embarrassed Albus. She scowled at the presence of Lunette. Anna had had a crush on Albus for a long time, it was never anything serious but she did enjoy flirting with him even if he never picked up on any of her hints.

"What have you done to him?" Anna demanded, storming up to Lunette. "You're such a tease Lunette, you flirt with Potter and then you go out with a hundred other guys! And I bet you think you can get away with it because you think you're so pretty and you think you're so great. Well most girls don't even like you! You just date all the good guys and then drop them after a week or two! Leave Potter alone. You don't deserve him!"

"Anna, you're being rude! First of all, my friendship with Lunette is none of your buisness and second of all, how dare you say that to her! You're simply in a bad mood today, we all know that Earls broke up with Robin and now she's grumpy and that's making you grumpy. Just because Robin is making you feel crappy, doesn't mean you can take it out on Lunette." Albus was standing now. "She's a great person and an amazing friend, lots of people love her and she doesn't deserve this sort of abuse-"

"Albus, I can't stand up for myself." Lunette stood and pushed him back into his seat. "But he is right, my life is none of your business! You seem to hate me because I'm friends with Rose who you claim to have stolen your best friends even though they say that you pushed them away. And you hate me because you're just jealous, Albus hasn't taken a second glance at you in the last five years and now I'm here and within minutes of knowing him, he's one of my best friends." Lunette was stern.

Anna scoffed. "Jealous? Of you?! Are you kidding me?! How could I be jealous of some stuck up tart who won't even accept a sweet guy trying to stand up for her. Albus was being nice and you just shot him down-"

"What did you just call her?!" James had heard the argument all that way from the Gryffindor table and had made his way behind Anna. "I'll have you know, that I look out for my family. Now Lunette may not be technically related, but she's close enough to all of my cousins that she might as well be. So you better leave he alone."

Roxanne, Dominique and Lorcan had appeared behind James with crossed arms and hard faces. Anna backed off slightly.

"There's nothing wrong with Lunette standing up for herself and dating the occasional guy, it does not warrant you the right to call her a tart or a tease."

"And don't you dare go spreading any sort of nasty things about our family." Dom warned.

Lunette smiled gratefully at them then turned to Albus who was swelling with pride at the sight of his cousins and brother calling Lunette family. Anna scowled and strutted off. Lunette sighed and gave a grateful nod to James, Dom, Lorcan and Roxanne. She turned to Albus.

"Do you want to do some studying in the library?"

"Oh, sure." Albus readily agreed.

Once in the library, Sulli Earls was smiling at Lunette. She got up to retrieve a book and Albus watched Earls take his chance to talk to her. Lunette smiled and spoke lightly, obviously flattered by his flirting. Albus knew very little about Sulli, but he didn't have a bad reputation of mistreating girls or getting into trouble. He hung around with the two biggest flirts in Gryffindor, (excluding James and Lorcan) Grant Hathaway and Wesely McLaggen. Sulli was an average student who didn't stand out in anything, but he seemed nice enough. As he watched Sulli chatting up Lunette, Albus could imagine Earls making Lunette very happy and perhaps this relationship would last longer and he would have time to get over her. Not that he thought ever getting over Lunette was possible, but it was marginally easier when she wasn't single.

Lunette giggled, Albus couldn't watch them anymore. He sighed and tried to concentrate on his muggle studies book but something caught his eye. Lunette had been doing some sort of work for potions, he peeped over at the slip of parchment hanging out of her potions book. It read ' _Additional and Advanced Work for the More Talented Witch or Wizard. O.W.L. Administrated and Approved by the Wizarding Examinations Authority_.' Albus frowned in confusion and tried to pull the parchment out but the textbook flew open. Scribbled on the pages Albus saw mini notes written in elegant handwriting. Albus's dad had told him of one occasion when a student was smart enough to correct the textbook, in fact he had the honour of bearing Serverus Snape's name. Albus didn't have time to contemplate whether or not Lunette was some kind of genius as she was coming back to their desk, a wide grin on her face. Albus slammed the book shut with the parchment in the right place, Lunette didn't notice.

She sighed dreamily as she sat down. "Do you know Sullivan? Is he nice?"

Albus shrugged. "I don't know him that well, he seems alright."

"I think I like him, I noticed him in history of magic class a few weeks ago but Rose said that he was dating Felix Stirling's sister. But they've been broken up for a while now and I think he might ask me out." Lunette was positively beaming but Albus couldn't help but see a slight hesitation in her eyes. But he ignored this and thought it was probably just wishful thinking. "Do you think he will ask me out?"

Albus looked up and searched her eyes. "Well, why wouldn't he ask you out? Any sane person would. Anyone can see that you're amazing but only some have the guts to say anything." He was mostly muttering bitterly to himself about his own cowardice and fear of rejection and losing a friend.

Lunette noticed something was up. She rested her hand on his forearm gently. "Albus-"

"I mean, what is wrong with the guy who can't ask you out? I'll tell you, he's a coward who doesn't deserve you. Lunette, you're so sweet and smart and hardworking-"

"Albus, please don't!" in panic, Lunette raised her voice above a whisper and the library shooed both of them out.

Once outside the library Albus spoke again.

"Lunette, what would you say if someone you saw as only a friend asked you out?"

Lunette gulped and stared at the floor. "Umm, err, well, I don't- I think-." She took a deep breath before continuing. "I don't know, but I do know that I care very deeply for my friends," she finally looked him in the eye, "some I care about a great deal more than others. But I know that my friends will stay with me forever, whereas guys I'm in a relationship with normally get bored- I mean, they realise we're not compatible after a week or two. I know that when a guy dumps me, my friends will always be with me to help."

"What if they were your friend first. Like, for example, if I-"

"Albus please stop." Lunette pleaded. "Please don't finish that sentence." She dropped her books and hugged him. "You're one of my best friends Albus and I appreciate your kindness and acceptance of me."

Albus felt deflated, as if someone had plunged a knife in his heart, another in his gut and one more in the side of his head. He managed a weak smile when Lunette let go of him and nodded.

"So, where do you want to go now?" Lunette asked cheerfully. "We've both got work to do. Or we can go back to our common rooms to do work and I'll see you later?"

"I would suggest we work outside but it's been raining all week. Actually, I can walk with you to your common room and on the way I want you to explain something to me." Albus gave a smile grin. He buried his hurt, he was not going to let anything get in the way of being Lunettes friend. He didn't want to hurt her because that would bring him pain beyond anything imaginable.

Lunette narrowed her eyes with suspicion then picked up her books. "What do you need explained so badly?"

"Does ' _Additional and Advanced Work for the More Talented Witch or Wizard. O.W.L. Administrated and Approved by the Wizarding Examinations Authority_.' sound familiar to you."

Lunette's hair turned a very pale pink to match her embarrassed cheeks. A first year Slytherin walked past and frowned at the colour change that Lunette hadn't noticed or done on purpose. She quickly changed back to her normal multicolured highlights.

"Where did you read that?" she asked quickly.

"It was hanging out of your potions book." Albus shrugged

"Ok, but you can't tell anyone. The potions professor said that my work recently has been so good that he gave me some extra work which will secure me an O for Outstanding in my overall grade in potions, and it as it is very rare, the Ministry may notice it and I will have a better chance of getting any job I want in the future."

Albus's eyes widened. "That's amazing! You're a genius!"

"Only in potions, I'm hopeless in Herbology, just ask Rose."

"Well you're better than Rose and Scorpius combined at potions! Why aren't you shouting this proudly?!"

Lunette frowned at him. "Because shouting proudly like an arrogant prat is something you know that I would never do."

"I know that, I didn't mean literally shout. But why am I being sworn to secrecy? Why can't anybody know about your talent?"

Lunette stopped walking and faced Albus. She spoke softly and seriously. "Because Albus, I have spent a long time trying to be normal and average. Most people are good or average at most subjects apart from the occasional one which they are simply hopeless at. And most people think I'm exactly like that, average with the exception of Herbology. If Rose and Scorpius weren't always fighting, they'd still stand out because they're so smart. I was teased when I was at Beauxbatons, I was constantly teased about being a Metamorphmagus and when I moved to England I decided that I was going to be normal and not stand out."

"But, the multicoloured hair-"

"It's really not as unusual as you think. If you look, a lot of muggle girls have blue or purple hair and besides, people look at me for a few seconds and then carry on because some teenage girl with colourful hair isn't that surprising."

Albus sighed. "I just- I don't- I don't understand why you of all people would want to hide who you are. I mean, I guess your reasons add up, but I find you so fascinating and wonderful because I do think you're different from other people."

Lunette gave a small smile. "See Albus, you know me better than most."

They had arrived at the Hufflepuff common room.

"I'll see you tomorrow Albus." Lunette said gently then tapped on a specific barrel.

Albus nodded and gave a small wave. "Sure, tomorrow."

 **FEBRUARY**

There was a bold knock on the door. Neville stuck his head out of his office, his eyes narrowed, there seemed to be no one about. So he closed the door and went back to his desk. There was a knock on the door again. Longbottom rolled his eyes and slowly made his way back to the door while shouting.

"James Sirius Potter, if this is your idea of a practical joke, I'm afraid you've run out of ideas and you need to go back to the drawing board- oh hello Rose."

"You know sir, I find it quite insulting that you could mistake me for my prat of a cousin."

Longbottom chuckled. "Well then, I'm sorry. Come on in Rose." He stepped aside to let the messy ginger girl in. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, the thing is sir-"

"We're not in class right now, you can call me uncle Neville."

Rose grinned. "Alright uncle Neville, the thing is, I'm worried. You see, our O.W.L exams are coming up in just a few weeks-"

"Few weeks! Rose, exams don't start until the end of May! You have ages. Try not worry about them now. I know you very well and I know that you study hard all year. You've never gotten lower than an E for Exceeds Expectations in any exam. I think you'll do alright. As long as you keep up with all your work and deadlines-"

"No, I mean, thank you. But the thing is," Rose stood and started pacing with worry. "I've finished all my homework and deadlines. It's saturday morning and I've got nothing to do! I've read all the books I brought with me and I've written to mum to ask her to send some more. But I won't get those until at least tomorrow morning!" Rose flopped back into the chair. "Uncle Neville, I'm worried that I have nothing to do! There must be something extra for me to do!"

"Have you asked teachers for extra work?"

"Yes! And that's why I'm here. No one will give me anymore homework. And I was going to visit Hagrid, but he's feeling ill and didn't want me catching it."

Longbottom made a mental note to check on Hagrid later that evening. "Well, I'm sorry Rose. I've got no extra work for Herbology. How about just hanging with your friends?"

"They're all doing homework because they left it until the last minute. I said I would help but Phil said that the constant hovering over her shoulder made her feel nervous and irritated."

Neville shook his head and smiled. "You remind me of your mother. Anyway, why don't you do what other normal teens do to relax? Like, playing chess or flying a broomstick."

Rose shrugged.

"Oh come on," Neville smiled encouragingly. "I heard there's a rumor going round your family that you're good on a broom."

She sghed. "Oh, I don't know." she stood and headed towards the door. "Well thanks for talking to me anyway uncle Neville."

He waved. "Anytime."

Rose was outside the quidditch pitch in just after an hour. She had managed to sneak James's broom out of the Gryffindor tower with anybody noticing. She looked around the empty grounds and sighed, her breath forming wisps in the cold February air. Rose was just about to mount the broom when she heard a mocking chuckle from the changing rooms. She recognised this sound and angrily marched over to where it had come from.

"What's wrong Malfoy? Finally looked into a mirror?" Rose grit her teeth.

"Weasley, you can't walk in a straight line sober and now you're trying to fly a broom?" Scorpius snorted. "I did not want to miss this."

"I'm not going to be underestimated by a twat like you." Rose raised her eyebrows.

"Underestimate? I estimate you'll fall flat on your face and I'll laugh my head off."

"Malfoy without a head," Rose shrugged. "Can't be a bad thing. Maybe you'll even start thinking a little bit more before you laugh at a Weasley. Every Weasley, with only a few excepts, has played quidditch at Hogwarts and have absolutely ruled at it. My aunt Ginny even played professional."

"Alright, are you up for a little challenge Weasley?" Scorpius smirked.

"I'm up for making you cry any day."

Scorpius disappeared into the changing room for a brief moment then returned holding his own broom and the chest that held the quidditch balls.

"Alright, first one to find the snitch wins."

"Deal."

Rose and Scorpius shook hands.

"What are we playing for?"

"Loser has to wear the winner's house colours all week." Scorpius suggested.

They shook hands again. It began to heavily rain, catching the snitch was going to be even harder. The snitch was released and they rushed to the pitch. Scorpius was alarmed at how quickly Rose mounted her broom and how she shot off the ground with such confidence. Only when she reached a great height, did Rose look behind her. Scorpius was still on the ground in awe of her skills.

"Oi, wanker! Give me at least a bit of a challenge." Rose laughed as she saw his worried expression.

Scorpius grit his teeth and pushed off the ground. He was not going to be beaten by some Weasley. Their individual competitiveness and determination made the two rivals race around the pitch for over ten minutes before Rose spotted the snitch. It gleamed below her, Rose dove downwards, straight after the snitch and Scorpius followed. She stretched out her arm, getting closer ad closer to the snitch as she grew nearer to the muddy ground.

"Weasley!" Scorpius shouted as he pulled up and hovered watching Rose get dangerously close to crashing.

Rose, on the other hand, knew exactly what she was doing. She clutched the snitch in her hand and, at the last minute, steered her broom upwards and elegantly flew in circles around Scorpius's head waving the snitch in his face.

Rose laughed. "Oh Malfoy, you didn't think that you would actually win did you?"

They landed beside one another as it continued to pour down with rain. Scorpius looked sharply to his left, he thought he had heard someone. Rose was off her broom and very close to Scorpius before he knew it. It was odd, his face turned a pale pink. He could smell the rain mixed with Rose's familiar scent of new parchment and freshly cut grass.

As Rose charmed Scorpius's tie, Slytherin crest, scarf and prefect badge red, she also became aware of how close they had gotten. She didn't dare to look up otherwise he might have seen that her ears were red. Rose found that she could still smell his peppermint breath and his scarf smelt of old her charms were done, Rose hopped back and slid around and almost feel into the mud but Scorpius grabbed her hand to stabalise her. Rose lightly squeezed his hand back before dropping it.

They didn't look at each other, the rain was a little lighter. Rose threw the snitch at Scorpius, he quickly caught it and they began to go their separate ways. Scorpius to the changing rooms and Rose to the castle. But a tall figure shouting at them, stopped them in their tracks. Professor Longbottom had caught them. They were in big trouble.

"This is irresponsible on both of your parts! I expect more from the top students, and prefects no less!" Longbottom shouted at Rose and Scorpius in his office, both still soaking wet from the rain.

"Sorry sir." Scorpius mumbled.

"Sorry sir, our competitiveness got the better of us. It won't happen again." Rose was mortified that she had made Longbottom shout at her.

"Let's hope so. You two have been argueing and hexing each other in the corridors for over a year now, teachers have even given up punishing you. But that is only because you do not injure yourselves or other students. But this, this incident had pushed the tolerance too far. You will both receive detentions, you will report to me every Saturday for the rest of this month at 6pm. Detention starts today. I will see you later."

The disappointment in Longbottom's tone got to both Scorpius and Rose. They both felt truly ashamed. Once out of his office, Rose and Scorpius stood and faced each other, but still refused to look one another in the eye.

"We went too far."

Rose nodded in agreement. "Our usual truce for the next week?"

"Agreed, except that we do need to speak to one another in potions."

"Agreed." Rose finally looked at him. Scorpius was just as cold and damp as she was. "You don't have to wear the Gryffindor colours."

"But that was the deal-"

Rose shook her head. "I think defacing your house crest and colours will just add to the mess we're in."

"Alright then, but you still won Weasley and I owe you something."

"No, I just want to forget this. Professor Longbottom is like an uncle to me, and to have to hear him telling me off is just bringing up too much guilt." Rose drew close again and charmed his clothes back to their usual colour.

"Thanks." Scorpius whispered while Rose was still quiet.

They looked into each other's eyes for a moment, nodded, then parted ways.

When their friends asked where they had been, both answered the same way.

"Got in an argument, now I have Saturday detentions for the rest of the month." Then sulked in their rooms until 6pm.

Professor Neville Longbottom's office was situated near the staff room. So when Rose and Scorpius paused to call a truce, most of the their teachers heard it. Neville joined his colleagues as they were discussing their two best students.

"I think this is absolutely ridiculous. And you're all foolish to involve yourselves in the petty lives of students." Professor Stockett announced loudly to them all as she helped herself to three spoonfuls of sugar for her cup of tea. "Ah Professor Longbottom, you'll agree with me. You're a smart and sensible man."

"What's going on?" Longbottom asked interestedly.

Headmast Fairweather answered him. "Oh, wel, Professor Lupin here has bet me five galleons that Miss Weasley and Mr Malfoy will be dating by seventh year. I say by the end of next year, ou should have seen them together in the library last year on Valentine's Day! And Nye here thinks-"

"I think that you are being too hasty, they'll find others that truly love them and do not constantly argue wit. They'll marry different people, not everyone marries whom they went to school with."

Longbottom and Teddy Lupin looked at each other and grinned.

"I did."

"I did." Neville chimed in.

"Both Malfoy and Rose's parents did."

"My parents did."

"Well, then I guess there are exceptions. But that's beside the point, they argue too much. Yes they maybe be similar, but that is not always a good thing."

They all had to agree with Professor Nye with that one.

"Alright, but I still think they'll end up together." said Headmaster Fairweather cheerfully

"So do I!" Lupin agreed.

"Same here, I'll go in on this bet." Longbottom joined in. "But they're both stubborn," he thought about it carefully. "I'll give them five years to get together."

"Five years!" Lupin laughed. "You're on."

Professor Stockett rolled her eyes and tutted before added another two spoonfuls of sugar to her tea. "I thought you were a sensible man Neville."

He shrugged. "I'm just as sensible as you are. Would you like some tea with your sugar?"

 **MARCH**

The reason as to why Rose and Scorpius had detentions every Saturday in February stayed reasonably quiet until around the middle of March, when the person who had actually told on them blurted it out. Finley Norwood had told a few people about the competition in the rain, but nobody seemed to believe or care what he said. News travelled fast around Hogwarts, but the news that Lunette was dating yet another guy seemed to be more interesting. However, when the rumour finally got to James and Lorcan, they cornered Rose on her way back to the common room after Ancient Ruins one day.

"Is it true?" James excitedly asked. "You competed, in the rain, against Malfoy to catch a snitch and won?!"

Rose sighed and shrugged. "I guess, but we got in trouble and Neville shouted." she didn't notice her cousin's excited tone and was only thinking of the disappointment in herself and from Longbottom.

"You're amazing! We didn't even know little miss clumsy could stay on a broom!" Lorcan joined in the enthusiastic face of James.

Rose shrugged. "I'm not bad on a broom. I'm also not bad at stealing brooms."

"What?" James as confused.

"Oh, my dear sweet cousin." Rose put on a mockingly patronising voice. "You think you're the trickster, the master pranker, the sly thief of the family when in fact I'm just more stealthy than you."

James was still confused.

Rose rolled her eyes. "I stole your broom James and you didn't notice." she said in a flat tone.

James wasn't angry or upset, he looked genuinely proud. "You have to try out next year of the quidditch team!" James hugged Rose then turned to Lorcan. "Next year can't come soon enough!" he suddenly became serious and looked Rose dead in the eye. "Promise me you'll try out?"

Rose sighed. "Sure, James. Actually, I've already promised Al and Lunette that I will."

"That sly brother of mine didn't say anything to me!" James and Lorcan then stalked off in the direction of the Slytherin common room.

Rose caught sight of the back of Lunette's head around the corner and ran to catch up with her.

"-well, probably." Rose heard the end of what Lunette was saying.

"Oh, come on. It'll be fun and we can finally get away from your Slytherin friends." a male voice replied, which Rose guessed to be her new boyfriend.

"Don't say it like that! Albus and Scorpius are two of best best friends, you need to accept them."

"But they're Slytherins!"

"So? You're a Ravenclaw, what has our houses got to do with any- Rose! Hi!" Lunette suddenly noticed her friend slowly approaching. "You don't know Jack that well do you?" She gestured to her boyfriend and Rose and Jack shook hands.

"Hey Lunette, how everything going-?"

She was interrupted by Jack's annoyed sigh.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Rose said sarcastically. "Is my talking interrupting your sighing?"

"Rose, please be nice." Lunette mumbled desperately.

Rose decided to be nice, but only for Lunette. "I'll let you guys get back to yourselves."

"Oh, ok Rose." Lunette seemed a little disappointed to be left all of a sudden. "We'll talk tomorrow."

Once they thought Rose was out of earshot, Jack spoke again.

"So are you coming or not?"

"Look, I've really got to get my Herbology grades up so I might not be able to."

Jack sighed again. "If you don't want to go out with me, just say-"

"No, it's not that-"

"You just want to hang around with that Potter anyway."

"He's just a friend! Look, Jack, I've just got to keep up with my work. If I get it all done, of course I'd love to go to Hogsmeade with you. But-"

"Yeah, whatever. I'll see you or I won't." Jack called from over his shoulder as he strutted off the the Ravenclaw tower.

Lunette sighed and turned slightly. "You can come out Rose, I know you're still there." she announced to the seemingly quiet corridor.

Rose popped her head out from behind a corner and placed a comforting hand on Lunette's shoulder. "Why are you going out with him if he's acting like that? You should be treated better."

"He's nice, he really is. But I guess I'm just used to it now. Relationships can't stay happy all the time and I've come to accept that every now and then a boyfriend might be pissed off at me."

"But- but Lunette, we're 16 years old and still in school. Our studies should always be first."

"No, he's right to be like this, I haven't been spending much time with him-"

"You've been going out a week." Rose raised her eyebrows.

"I know but-"

"You're still in the so called 'honeymoon phase' he should be more grateful that he's dating you."

"well...,-"

"Why don't you just break up with him? The ungrateful git."

"Look, Rose-"

"You're fun, pretty, great and loyal. What's his problem?"

"Rose, every guy has broken up with me for the same reason. And it's a reason that haunts me every time someone gives me attention. My friends are the only ones that I can trust will love me forever for who I really am. And until I meet the guy who can treat me right, I guess I'll just keep dating for short periods of time-"

"That's not the right attitude to have!" Rose was desperate to make Lunette confident and happy.

"Then what is the right attitude Rose?! Huh?!" Lunette raised her voice, she was mad at herself and Rose happened to be caught in it. "It can't be whatever attitude _you_ have! You date clingy guys in an unhealthy relationship for _way_ too long! You dump guys for cheating on you and you don't even seem angry or upset! You pretend to act like no guy is good enough for you when in fact _you_ don't think _you're_ good enough for anybody! And you've started some stupid rivalry with the one guy who would be _perfect_ for you!" Lunette's hair had turned fiery red, her cheeks and clenched fists matching the colour. "You're _hypocritical_ advice isn't going to help me now Rose!" She stormed off the the Hufflepuff common room, feeling the instant regret of shouting at her best friend simply because she was a bad mood.

Lunette slumped on her bed, screamed into her pillow then lay there staring at the ceiling, crying her eyes out. She had overreacted, shouted at a friend for no reason, realised that every boyfriend she'd ever had had the common habit of not appreciating her.

There was a small knock on the door and a sympathetic and comforting voice drifted through.

"Lunette? Are you in there? One of the girls you share a room with is worried that you're not ok, you missed dinner."

It was Dominique.

Lunette ran to the bathroom and splashed her face a few times.

"Umm, I'll be ok." Lunette answered, she couldn't hide the shakiness of her voice.

"If you say so, but Lunette there's someone outside the common room who needs to talk to you."

"Oh, well tell Jack that I'm busy and I'll talk to him tomorrow."

"It's not Jack."

Lunette frowned in confusion and opened the little round door of her room. "Who is it then?" she asked once face to face with Dominique.

Dom smiled. "Come and see."

Lunette stepped out into the the corridor by the kitchens to see Scorpius slouching against the wall. He gave a small smile when he saw her. Lunette turned in time to see Dom scowling at Scorpius as she closed the door and Louis doing the same from further within the common room.

"Hello Scorpius, what can I do for you?" Lunette tried to sound cheerful.

"I thought you could use a friend." He pulled something out of his inner robes pocket. "And Albus sent a can of cola he's had in his trunk since summer. He thought it might cheer you up."

Lunette laughed and thought about when she met Albus at Hunstanton and later on in the evening he covered them both in cola. She took the can and grinned. "He really knows how to cheer me up."

"Yeah, sorry he isn't here. Albus has left his muggle studies literature homework until the last minute again."

Lunette smiled and sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. Scorpius joined her.

"I'm guessing Rose told Albus what happened?"

Scorpius nodded.

Lunette sighed. "I overreacted. I was just in a bad mood."

"I know what that's like. You accidentally take it out on a friend."

Lunette eyed him suspiciously, she had an idea that he may have been talking about Rose. "What was it like when you guys were friends?"

Scorpius knew exactly who she was talking about and answered straight away. He didn't ok at her, but stared at the wall opposite. "It was great. We still had disagreements but we got over them pretty quickly. I just took out my jealousy on her. I kept on criticising her and starting arguments. I didn't realise how much I was hurting her until she stopped hanging out with me and Albus."

Lunette thought for a moment. "But Albus stayed your friend, I never understood that. He and Rose are each other's favourite cousins and have been best friends since forever, yet he stuck with you and Rose seems fine with it."

Scorpius gave a long sigh. "You don't have to remind me. I split up those two, they were practically twins joined at the hip. But Albus is such a good guy that he's somehow managed to split his time between the two of us evenly. He never takes sides even though his whole family did."

"It's a shame, his cousins are awesome people."

"I know, and they all liked me at one point. Now they don't talk to me." he looked at Lunette and forced a smile. "Feeling better?"

"A little but. But you know what will make me feel back to normal?"

"What?"

"I need to apologise to Rose. I'm sorry to say it Scorp, but I'm not making the same mistake as you. I can't lose Rose. She's my best friend."

"Luckily for you, Albus said that Weasley thinks it's her fault and is trying to give you space before she apologises."

Lunette drained the can of cola in one gulp, stood up with determination and charged into the kitchens. Scorpius was left looking bewildered at the painting of the bowl of fruit. When Lunette emerged a couple of minutes later, she was holding a mug of hot chocolate. She handed it to Scorpius.

"Give this to Albus, tell him thanks for the cola. Now I'm off to get Rose."

 **APRIL**

"Bloody hell, you're a git Malfoy!"

Rose could be heard shouting throughout the castle.

"Oh, I'm the git? You twat!"

And Scorpius could be heard shouting back.

Their truce had lasted longer than planned, both had been ashamed of their competitive rule breaking which made Longbottom, their favorite teacher, shout at them. But eventually they grew tired of not having a good shout in the corridors and by the middle of April, their feud was back on.

Hexes and jinxes were sent back and forth, Longbottom walked passed, but seeing that no one else was being harmed, he moved on thinking about his bet with Lupin, Nye and Headmaster Fairweather. He was never more certain of his own judgement.

As Rose turned Scorpius's hair red and cast a bat bogey hex and he made her sneeze uncontrollably in turn, Albus stood watching. Lunette appeared beside him, she seemed a bit annoyed.

"What's wrong?" Albus asked as soon as he saw her expression. His best friend's argument no longer occupying his thoughts.

"Just another break up."

"Jack?"

"Yep."

Albus wrapped one arm around Lunette's shoulder and gave her a small sympathetic squeeze. "I'm sorry."

Lunette sighed. "I don't think I can take many more break ups. They all end up repeating each other. Is there something I'm doing wrong?"

"When the right guy comes along you'll know." Albus let go of her. 'If I were the right guy she'd already know.' he thought gloomily.

"Are you ok? You seem suddenly down?"

"Oh, it' nothing. I- I just don't understand why these guys are breaking up wth you. If it were me-" Albus turned bright red. "Umm, err- I mean- no." he ran off towards the Slytherin common room, regretting even opening his mouth.

Lunette watched as he ran off. 'If it were him...? If it were him what?' she thought and suddenly felt like crying 'if it were Albus perhaps I'd be happy. But at what cost? Happy for a week or two before he inevitably broke up with me just like the rest.' Lunette slowly headed off towards the library.

What neither Albus or Lunette realised was that Rose and Scorpius had stopped fighting as soon as Albus ran off. They noticed that their friends were having an issue. And that took priority. Rose and Scorpius lowered their wands, to the growing crowd's astonishment, nodded at one another and ran off in opposite directions. Rose to Albus and Scorpius to Lunette. They seemed to have a mutual understanding to swap friends once they had consoled the one they ran after.

"Al!" Rose was running out of breath after sprinting down four flights of stairs to catch up with her cousin before he disappeared.

"Rose! Oh, hi." Alus was confused to see her. "I thought you were facing your mortal enemy?" Albus tried to laugh but he was still red from embarrassing himself in front of Lunette.

"You're-" sneeze "mo-" sneeze "-more-" sneeze "-impor-" sneeze "-tant." sneeze. "Give me just-" sneeze "-a second." she sorted out her sneezing and looked Albus seriously in the eye. "What happened Al?"

"I made a fool of myself in front of Lunette again. I thought I was past making myself look like an idiot but I guess not." he began to repeatedly bang his head on the wall. "Why do I have to have a massive crush on the most wonderful girl I've ever met?!"

"Al, stop it." Rose pulled him away from the wall so he would stop beating himself up. "I think Lunette is used to it by now. And you've done so well at not embarrassing yourself for so long, that it was bound to come back at some point. And besides, none of us are perfect. You need to relax more around her."

Albus sighed.

Meanwhile Lunette was biting her lip and thinking over what Albus had said while Scorpius laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

She looked up at him and gave him a weak smile. "I'm sorry, I'm just thinking about something that would ruin mine and Albus's friendship."

Scorpius nodded. "My guess is he said something along the lines of that and that's why he ran off."

Lunette gave a small nod in return. "Albus is great isn't he? He's just too good a person."

"He's not too good, Lunette. No one is perfect."

 **END OF JUNE**

Most students had two or three O.W.L exams left. The library and common rooms were full of fifth year students with their noses stuck in books. Only a few had finished alll teir exams, those that had early exams and were taunted while everyone else was outside in the sun. Now it had switched around.

Albus and Lunette could be found in the courtyard reading through Divination text books Lunette had finished her exams and was helping Albus revise for his final exam.

"Ok,so you've got one more chapter left. Ooh, it's all about tea leaves. Ok, question one-"

"So, er-um, Lunette. There's- there's something, er, I've been meaning to ask you."

Lunette looked up and smiled at Albus. "My answer is no, you shouldn't join the quidditch team. I know your family are good at it but, you can only just stay on a broom."

Albus laughed with her.

"No I wasn't going-"

"I know. Carry on."

"The thing is, I - um, I actually did have a question."

"Oh." Lunette turned to face him. "Go ahead."

"We're friends right? And I love being your friend, it's given me a chance to really get to know you in a way that I think not many do. And I've really come to like you, you're an amazing person and, if you would just give me the chance-"

Lunette's eyes widened and she jumped up off the bench. "No Albus, please don't. Not you."

"What?"

"Please don't ask me out. I can't- I just can't go out with you."

Albus felt like someone had kicked in him the gut and stabbed his heart. "So other guys that you're friends can ask you out but as soon as I say something, you freak out and refuse straight away?!"

"Those guys are different, I mean, they're all the same, they all ask me out because they think I'm pretty."

"But you are, you're beautiful! But that's not why I'm-"

"I'm one quarter veela! I know I'm pretty, yes I know that sounds big headed." Lunette began to pace in front of Albus as she waffled, staring hard at the ground. "And I know that's why most people notice me and that's why I so often get asked out. But those relationships always end and it really hurts. I've never gotten overly attached to any guy I've dated, I don't trust them. All they see is that I'm pretty and I'm flattered but it's not enough just to find someone good looking. And because I don't trust, I'm not my true self. I've been doing it so long that I'm not sure I even know myself! You want to know why every guy dumps me after just a few weeks? Because I'm a novelty that wears off and they begin to notice that I have no personality. They all break up with me because I'm all surface, and there is no deep inside version of me. They all say I'm emotionally detached, dull and disappointing. I guess they all expected me to be perfect-"

"I know you're not perfect." Albus interrupted. "You can get too competitive and you fake confidence in yourself when in fact you constantly worry what other people think about you. You are hopeless at muggle studies and herbology, but hide your talent for potions. And while we're on the subject of hiding, you're ashamed to be metamorphmagus because, again you worry what people might think of you. The only part you change is your hair, but even that has always stayed the same multicoloured unless you have a sudden mood change that you can't control."

Lunette felt tears coming on. "Is this meant to be making me feel better?! You know it really does hurt every time I get dumped! And I don't need you, of all people, pointing out my flaws-"

"Lunette, I know you're not perfect." Albus gently brought her back to sit on the bench and spoke softly. "Nobody is. And you're wrong you know, you do have a personality, you're not all surface. Just look at what house you were put in. Hufflepuffs are hardworking, fierce and loyal. That is all you. And you're funny, charming, smart, kind, generous, a brilliant friend and usually modest. And think about Rose, the people she instantly dislikes are the people who follow the crowd and don't seem to have any individuality. Yet she knew you were going to be a worthy friend the second she met you. Lunette, I know you're not perfect, I never expected you to be perfect. But, to me, who you are outweighs any imperfections."

Tears did spill over, Lunette couldn't believe that Albus had said what she unknowingly had wanted to hear. "But, bu- you don't find me being a metamorphmagus weird? There were some kids back in France who taunted me, my parents decided to move house to avoid their abuse."

Albus couldn't stop himself from giving her a hug. "You're beautiful in any form. You're still you. You know, I think sometimes we'd all like to be someone else. We all have insecurities that we have to overcome, and sometimes we never overcome them but we have to accept who we are." He pulled away slightly to look at her face.

Lunette was still crying, but smiling at the same time. She changed her face into that of a rabbit. Albus chuckled. "See, the most charming bunny I've ever seen."

"Albus, I can't trust people. I trust you and Rose and Scorpius because you are my friends," she returned her face to usual, "but if we go out, I might retreat to emotionally distant Lunette with a one dimensional personality."

"Then I'll help you be you." Albus sighed. "You are so amazing Lunette and I'm just lucky to be your friend. But I've always found you special, there's something about that makes me want to stay with you forever. I'd like to start dating you so that I can know you better than a friend, but if not, I'll happily remain your friend. I just don't want to lose you."

"I don't want to lose you either, that's why we can't go out!"

"Ok, I understand. Friends it is, and a good friend you are." Albus sighed and gave a weak smile. He stood up and hit his forehead with him hand. "I feel like a complete idiot." He mumbled. "I thought that maybe you felt the same way. I'm sorry."

"You're not an idiot.

Albus stopped dead and didn't dare to look at her. His heart was in his mouth and he couldn't breath. She continued

"You've always been special to me too Albus, ever since we met I sensed that there was something unknown and exciting between us. And that's why I can't go out with you. Because if I screw it up, I'll have lost you." She was sobbing even harder. "And I can't lose you Albus! I don't know what I would do without you."

"You won't lose me. You can't ever lose me." He wrapped his arms around her again, she hugged him back. "If something goes wrong, then we'll, I don't know, sit down and talk through it. And you know that we can always ask other people for help and advice."

Lunette sniffed and stopped crying. "That's true." she whispered mostly to herself.

"So, if I ask you out will you say yes?" Albus said cautiously, pulling away from her again to look into her eyes.

Lunette gave a shaky sigh. "Albus," She held his hands. "I don't know. I really like you and I'll hate myself even more if I screw this up."

He placed one hand gently on her cheek. "Please don't hate yourself."

"Can I give you an answer another time? I need to think about this."

He lightly brushed a stray purple piece of hair behind her ear. "Take as long as you need, I'll take a page out of the Hufflepuff book and try and be patient."

Lunette smiled. "Thanks."

Albus began to pack up his books but Lunette stopped him.

"Wait a second there mister," she said as she dried her eyes and sniffed once more. Trying to get herself back to usual, which was hard considering how much she wanted to yes yes to Albus but her rational mind stopped her. "you've got a divination exam in 2 hours and you've yet to answer the question."

Albus smiled and sat down.

"Come on, I'm bored, I've finished all my exams and I'm trying to help you. Now," she lifted up Albus's divination book and squinted at the pictures. "What happens if your tea leaves look like" she squinted at the picture. "some sort of flower thing?"

Albus chuckled, "It symbolises hope."

Lunette grinned, "Genius. And what if it looks like, umm," She turned the book sideways. "if it looks like what I can only describe as a lumpy anchor."

"Stability."

"Albus," She put a hand on his shoulder. "You are going to pass this exam with flying colours." She made her multicoloured highlights flash and interchange colours.

Albus was awestruck by her abilities. "Awesome."

They laughed as Lunette continued to quiz him.

They did not realise that Rose looked down at them from an open window on the second floor corridor. She smiled as she watched.

Scorpius was patrolling the corridor when he saw Rose seemingly smiling at nothing. He glared and sent a leg locking jinx and her. Rose sank to the floor then rolled to see who it was. She scowled and sent a tripping jinx at him. Scorpius landed on the floor beside her.

"You just hexed a prefect." Scorpius groaned his he picked himself up.

"So did you." Rose reversed the leg locking jinx and popped up.

"Well, I'm on duty."

"Well, I'm watching two of my best friends flirt."

Scorpius rushed to join her staring out the window.

"No way!" he whispered excitedly to Rose with a wide grin.

"Yep, it's finally going to happen, but not yet, but it will happen. She said that she would answer him another time, she needs time to think."

"Then I give it two weeks before they're together."

"No, I give it a couple of months. Lunette may feel the same way about Al, but she really loves being his friend. She'll be weighing up the pros and cons all summer, trying to see if it's worth the risk of loosing Al as a friend if she can date him."

"Months?!" Scorpius looked at her in shock. "There's nothing to weigh up, they'll be dating sooner than we know it."

"Oh yeah, prepared to make a bet?" Rose challenged cockily. "Two Galleons says they don't go out until at least the the end of August or the start of September."

"Alright Weasley, you're on." he shook her hand.

He held on for too long. Rose's eyes widened at looked up at Scorpius, he dropped her hand quickly and turned to watch out the window again. To his surprise, Rose didn't leave. Instead she joined him.

Albus and Lunette had gone inside as it had started raining. The window faced the lake, the grey clouds covered the sun set.

"You might miss the stars tonight." Scorpius mumbled, knowing how much Rose loved to stare into the night sky.

Rose shrugged, "That's alright, I've seen them plenty of times."

"Have you ever seen a shooting star?" he asked interestedly.

Rose looked behind them, most people were studying for exams but she, Scorpius, Lunette and a few other students had finished just the previous day. The corridor was empty and she didn't mind being normal with Scorpius every now and then, even if she did hate him. But sometimes it was as if they were third years friends and nothing had ever come between them.

"Yeah, they often say on the muggle news if there are going to be shooting stars. My parents used to set up a blanket in the back garden, mum would light bluebell flames in jars to stop the blanket from blowing away and dad would make hot chocolate without magic. The hot chocolate would be disgusting, but it was warm, so we would sit there hugging these mugs and staring at the sky." Rose laughed. "That was a long time ago, before Hugo and I came to Hogwarts."

"And before you met the guy who ruined your life at school. What was it you called me the other day?"

Rose laughed again. "Oh, no, please don't."

"A stuck up, half witted, scruffy looking what?"

"Nerf herder."

Scorpius laughed as Rose's ears were pink. They leaned against the wall and spoke as the stared at their shoes.

"What in Merlin's name is a Nerf herder?"

"In Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back, Leia calls Han Solo a 'Stuck up, half witted, scruffy looking Nerf herder'. It's sort of an awesome but slightly nerdy series of films. There were the original trilogy, then they made some prequels that nobody really liked and then they made some sequels that were pretty good."

"Star Wars?"

"It's awesome. I had a friend at my muggle primary school who was obsessed with these films, Alicia and older brother, Jo, used to make me watch them whenever I went over. I was so excited and tense at one part that I accidentally popped all the light bulbs in their living room and all the cushions started floating. Luckily I noticed the cushions in time and Alicia didn't see."

Scorpius laughed along with Rose, but they both stopped suddenly. There were footsteps approaching.

"If that's Mclaggen he's definitely going to think we're secretly dating." Rose whispered harshly to Scorpius.

"Wait, he actually believed that?!" Scorpius was amazed.

"Shhhh!" Rose glared at him, grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and dragged him into a secret cupboard she knew of behind a tapestry.

Whoever was walking their way passed the cupboard. Rose and Scorpius stood very close together for a few seconds more just incase there was anyone else coming.

"What in Merlin's name was that for?!" Scorpius said through gritted teeth as he rubbed his arm, Rose had aggressively grabbed part of him with his sleeve.

"I was helping you!" Rose angrily burst out of the cupboard, hitting Scorpius with the door and the tapestry as they climbed into the corridor.

"Helping? How was that helping?! Only one of us needed to hide, yeah it would have been weird for anyone to see us not fighting, but you could have left me quite happily alone in the corridor."

"Oh yeah, and have the person ask 'Why are you standing like and idiot in a corridor during lunch break?' You would panic and rat me out or make up some stupid excuse that made no sense! You're welcome Malfoy!"

"Oh shut up Weasley! I don't need your help, I never have and I never will!"

"Well that's obviously not true! Just last year you needed help with some charm. And who did you go to straight away? And who helped you with only the slightest bit of hesitation? Me!"

Their peaceful afternoon had turned into another hexing dual. Rose hopped away with buck teeth and one jelly leg while Scorpius scuttled back to his dormitory with spots that spelt the words 'half wit' and had an uncontrollable stream of bats flying out of his nose.

 **TRAIN HOME**

Rose, Phil and Lunette sat in a compartment by themselves, lazily flicking through books and boredly staring out of the window.

"Where's Mel?" Rose asked Phil

Phil sighed and rolled her eyes. "She's trying to divide her time equally between us and Anna, or something like that. She thinks we ignore Anna too much."

Rose nodded. "We probably do." she sighed. "Well, that's what I'll be doing tomorrow."

Lunette looked as though she was contemplating something. "I never liked Anna."

"She never liked you." Phil said with a matter of fact tone. "Thinks you spend too much time with Potter and she's jealous."

"We're just friends!" Lunette defended herself.

Rose eyed her suspiciously but went back to reading her book.

"I know that and you know that. But he has a massive crush on you, if you haven't noticed, and you keep on going out with other guys. Anna thinks you're being a tease."

Lunette folded her arms and huffed. "Well if I am I don't mean to be."

Rose looked at her watch and stood up quickly. "I'll see you in a bit. I've got to go to the prefect compartment then do some patrolling."

Rose managed to trip as she exited the compartment and ran head first into someone then fell flat on the ground. She rubbed her leg which was going to get a bruise as she stood.

"Ow, sorry- oh it's you."

Mae Blinston stood scowling at Rose as if she were the mud on her shoes.

"Wait, was that an apology from a ginger nobody?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't push you over."

"Look Weasel, I'm only talking to your pathetic self to tell you to leave my man alone."

Rose raised her eyebrows and sniggered. "You're man? And who might be _your man_?"

Mae scoffed. "Well Scorpius of course. Everybody knows that we're going to end up together and I think you're trying to ruin it for me."

"You think? You actually have the capacity to think?" Rose shrugged. "Well, you learn something new everyday."

"I'm serious, carrot top, I saw you with Scorpius the other day. You were laughing and getting along and then you pulled him into a cupboard. I know what you're up to. You fight with him and then flirt when no one's looking. You're just trying to mess him up, trying to mess with his feelings so he's no good to anybody else. Well, you know what, furball, Scorpius is too good for some nerdy, muggle loving, orange bush like you."

Rose gave a cruel laugh. "Oh Blinston, that git is all yours. I don't know what you _thought_ you saw the other day, but I'm not trying to steal 'your man'. You guys are perfect for each other because nobody else wants to date stuck up, selfish arseholes."

Rose pushed passed Mae and angrily marched away. When she saw Scorpius, Rose simply sent him a look of death. For the first time, Scorpius was actually scared at the expression and was at a loos as to what he had done this time to deserve it.

 **SUMMER HOLIDAYS**

"Right! Everybody up!" someone was shouting from the fireplace in the living room. It startled all the Granger-Weasleys.

Ron and Hermione raced to Rose and Hugo's room, they kids themselves popped their heads out of their doors only to be forced into their parents bedroom. Ron put his finger to his lips to indicate for silence. Hermione grabbed Ron's and her own wand then they made their way slowly downstairs. Hugo and Rose looked at each other with a questioning look and silently followed their parents.

"Wooah! Woah! Aunt Hermione put the wand down!"

"Merlin's Beard! Mr Weasley please don't hurt me! My mum would never forgive you!"

Rose and Hugo gave a relieved laugh and rushed downstairs. They recognised the voices of their cousin James and Lorcan Scamander.

"Sorry uncle Ron, we're just here to get Rose." James tried to pull Rose into a headlock so he could rub her hair, but she managed to step out of arm reach.

Hugo yawned. "It's 6am!"

Lorcan and James shrugged and grinned.

Hugo rubbed his eyes and scowled in disbelief of their cheerfulness. "On a Saturday, on the first day of the summer holidays! Why are you awake?! Why are you waking us up?!" Hugo spun around and trudged back upstairs. "Why is anybody awake at this time? Why does this time exist on a weekend? Who actually uses this time on a weekend for anything but sleep? Why can't we all just go back to sleep?" he sleepily mumbled questions until they heard his bedroom door shut.

Hermione looked between Rose and James, shrugged and yawned. "So your parents know you're here?"

"Of course they do Aunt Hermione, mum was the one who told me to go and bug some other people this early in the morning"

Hermione smiled. "Well then, I'm going back to bed."

"Have you boys had breakfast yet?" Ron asked.

"Yes sir, James burst into my house around 5am. Dad wasn't happy but mum was cheerful enough to make us breakfast."

Ron gave a short nod. "Then I'm going back to bed too."

"So am I." Rose turned but James caught her arm. She gumbled. "Ah, come on James! You know depriving me sleep in the mornings is hazardous to your wellbeing."

"I know, but quidditch comes first and I want to see how good my cousin actually is."

Rose rolled her eyes. "You can find out at trials like everybody else."

"Please Rose! Lucile was worried that she might not make the team because of you, she said that outloud for the rest of the team to hear and now they're all worried you might replace them."

"But you do trials every year, they should know that the potential for someone to replace is a yearly thing. No one is guaranteed a place." Rose shrugged and slumped in the nearest sofa.

"Rose," Lorcan crouched down to be by her eye level. Rose found this patronising so she gently pushed him and Lorcan fell on his butt before looking up at Rose and continuing. "Rose, everybody knows you're a clumsy genius who can do anything she puts her mind to accept walk down a flight of stairs without tripping. But these two traits kind of cancel each other out when it comes to riding a broom, so technically you should suck at quidditch. But now that there are rumors going around that you've mastered yet another skill, people are going to want to see proof so they're going to turn up to the trials. Can you imagine being on the quidditch team for a couple of years, then _BAM_ some other kid everyone thought didn't have any balance takes your place? Well that's going to be disheartening and everybody will see it and you will never live it down."

Rose yawned, she looked at Lorcan and blinked. "I'm too tired, let me go back to bed."

"Rose, I just want you to prove that you're awesome. Otherwise people are going to think I only put my friends and family on the team." James sighed and slumped on the sofa beside her. "If you're not good enough, I obviously won't put you on the team. But the fact that I even considered you to join the team will still make people think I'm biased."

Rose looked at her cousin, he was serious. "Alright, let's go. Just let me get dressed."

Almost everyday during the summer James and Lorcan would invade the Granger-Weasley home to play Quidditch with Rose. Occasionally Lily joined in, when she wasn't hanging with Hugo, and Albus came to watch. Hugo remained disinterested and spent most of the summer in the town nearby.

"Hey Rose!" Hugo practically came skipping into the living room one afternoon after James and Lorcan had left. He chuckled at the sight of Rose who was face down on a sofa making groaning sounds as her muscles ached. James was determined to obsess over quidditch with her.

"Make it quick, my body might give up and die in just a couple of seconds." Rose grumbled. "Did you know that James was here at 5am! Why do we have to have him as a cousin."

"I saw your old friend Alicia, from primary school, in town today. And her older brother Jo was there too. Man, they have really grown up."

In hearing these names, Rose's head suddenly sprung up. But her neck clicked and she headbutted the sofa armrest again.

A couple of days later, the dreaded exam results arrived. As usual Hugo got 'A' for Acceptable and 'E' for Exceeds Expectations. As Rose opened her letter, she was happily reading through each grade, all saying 'O' for Outstanding in her O. , except Potions. She had only gotten an 'A' for Acceptable. However, she hid her confusion and disappointment until Hug had left, she knew that he would get mad at her if she showed her frustration at the grade that he always achieved.

Hermione noticed her daughter's change in attitude and the fact that she didn't say or eat much at breakfast. But, just like Rose, she decided to wait until Jugo was gone.

After breakfast, Rose ran up to her room. Hermione waved goodbye to Hugo as he went to visit Lily, then followed Rose upstairs.

"Rose? What's wrong?" Hermione slowly opened the door.

Rose was under her duvet cover, laying on her stomach with a pillow over her head. Her letter was on the floor beside the bed. Rose only groaned in reply. Hermione picked up the letter and read all the results.

"Rose, this is great, you've done brilliantly. We're so proud of you dear. I know how hard O. can be."

Rose groaned again. Hermione saw the 'A' and understood Rose's disappointment. For a staight 'O', except Ancient Ruins, student to get an 'A' is just deflating.

"I thought I was good enough." Rose whined. "I thought I was good at Potions. I mean, my Ancient Ruins grade is still higher than the Potions one."

Hermione gently rubbed Rose's back.

"I understand how you feel dear, but you've done so brilliantly at the rest of your exams. You mustn't feel too angry-"

"I'm not angry, I just feel like I've disappointed everyone." Rose gave a melancholy sigh and she sat up. "So much for having my mother's brains. I can't live up to your standard!" She flopped again onto the pillow. "I'm a failure."

"Honey, you are just as smart and as talented as I was at your age. You're sharp, witty, clever, sensible and fun. You did your best and that's all anyone should demand from you. Remember that an 'A' is still a pass, you didn't fail. And by the looks of things, you got an 'O' in the exam and only the teamwork module brought you down a bit. Luckily none of that should be in the N.E.W.T. I'm proud of you Rose. You should be proud of yourself too."

Rose managed a small smile. "Thanks mum." She sighed and looked out the window, it was a sunny day. "I'm going to ride around on my broom for a couple of hours."

"Alright but James isn't coming today, Ginny is making him sit down and do some school work."

Rose smiled. "That's fine, I think I just want to be alone for a little bit anyway mum. I think you're right, I did well on the rest of my exams and so I should focu on them." But Rose thought to herself. 'But if I ever want to have a job that requires Potions, this 'A' will ruin everything.'.

The next morning was end of July, Rose woke up at around 7am. After just a few weeks her body was used to getting up early to play quidditch. Rose listened to her surroundings, it seemed like James and Lorcan weren't there, or they were at least a lot later that usual. She slowly sat up, her leg and arm muscles screaming at her. Rose lazily trudged her way downstairs to find Hermione and Ron eating breakfast and rushing around getting ready for work at the same time. She plonked herself into the nearest chair and yawned.

"Morning. Hugo not up yet?"

"He's gone to Hunstanton with Harry this week." Ron said with a mouthful of toast.

"You just missed him dear." Hermione said as she whisked behind Rose. "I'm off to work, you'll be home alone today Rose." She lifted a mass of ginger fluff off of Rose's forehead and kissed her gently. "So if you o out, there are spare keys in the living room behind the-"

"Behind the Mimbulus Mimbletonia . I know mum, I have been home alone before."

Ron winced. "And be careful around that plant, I keep on getting Stinksap on my shirt when I accidently nudge it with something."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well, who was the one who insisted on putting it in the living room?"

Ron shrugged. "I thought it would catch George off guard!"

Hermione rolled her eyes again "I'm off to work." she kissed Rose on the forehead again before turning on the spot an apparating to the ministry.

Ron stood and hugged Rose. "I should probably get going too. See you later Rosie, don't go too near any boys in town. I don't trust them."

Rose laughed. "The only boys you trust are my cousins."

Ron nodded. "Then just stick with those lot." He hopped into the fireplace and flooed over to work.

Rose made herself some toast and rushed upstairs to get a book, she regretted rushing as her legs were still tired.

"Rose!" someone called from the living room as Rose was almost downstairs frowned and wrapped her dressing gown tighter around her.

"Lunette!" Rose grinned as when she saw her friend emerging from the fireplace. "We have got to get better security in this house." Rose mumbled.

"Oh, sorry for bursting in." Lunette bit her lip

Rose realised how tired and worried Lunette looked.

"I can go if you want, I shouldn't have bursted in." Lunette turned back to the fireplace but Rose caught her arm.

"Lunette, you're always welcome here. Sit down and let me get you a drink or something. Have you eaten yet?"

"Oh, um, I haven't eaten in awhile. I seem to have lost my appetite."

Rose rushed into the kitchen and brought out a huge mug of tea and a tray of biscuits. "Lunette, are you ok? What's going on?"

"I'm freaking out Rose!" Lunette sounded desperate. "This whole Albus thing! I'm pretty sure I feel about him in a way I've never felt about anyone but I can't have him and it's killing me."

"Lunette," Rose said softly and hugged her. "He feels the same way, I know, I've seen it in his eyes and he's told me countless times."

"But I've never had a friend like Albus! He asked me out Rose! Now whether I say yes and then we break up or if I say no, there will always be some awkwardness between us."

"It's Al! He's always awkward." Rose said dryly.

"Look Rose, I haven't been sleeping, I haven't been eating. I can't make this decision, you make it for me!"

Rose only felt pure sympathy as she spoke softly. "You know I can't do that."

Lunette started crying, she stretched herself out on the sofa and rested her head on Rose's lap.

"I'm only 16 years old. I shouldn't have to be making these life altering decisions." Lunette sniffed after a while.

"Life altering?" Rose was slightly confused.

"Rose, I'm pretty sure that if it works out with Albus, we'll be together for a long time. That's how strongly I feel about him. I don't know if it's love, I just know that I think about him all the time, he makes me smile, he makes me feel good about myself and I can really imagine a future with him."

"Then why don't you say yes?"

"Because, what if I'm wrong and I end up ruining the best friendship I've ever had? I mean, I'm too young to know what love really is."

Rose didn't know how to answer so they simply sat together in silence for a long time, each thinking about Albus. Eventually Rose knew what to say, hoping that it would be of some help.

"Well, why don't you talk to Albus about it?"

Lunette sat up and wiped her eyes. "What?"

"Lunette, Al is probably just as nervous about what answer you're going to give as you are. He's known how he feels about you since the moment those cans of cola sprayed everywhere and embarrassed him."

Lunette smiled at the memory, but her face was soon serious again as her eyebrows knit together. "But isn't it my decision?"

"Yes it is, but the stress is not treating you well. Albus would be torn up to see you sleep deprived and not eating. He cares so much about you, he would never want this to be effecting you like this."

Lunette stood and nodded with determination. "That's it! I'll just talk to Albus!" she sat down on the sofa opposite Rose and sighed again. "Dear, sweet Albus who would be crushed to see me this way and even more hurt if I said no."

"Talk to him, you'll feel better." Rose gave an encouraging smile.

Lunette nodded. "I always feel better when I'm talking to Albus, even if I'm already in a good mood."

Rose grinned. If this wasn;'t a girl in love, then she didn't know anything. "He's in Hunstanton for the next week."

Lunette slumped. "Great another whole week of feeling like this."

Rose thought for of a plan. "Well, they always get there via floo network in a muggle antique shop run buy an old wizard and his muggle wife. He's really nice and if I write to him and my aunt Ginny, they might be able to arrange a day when you can visit."

Lunette jumped up, sprang across the living room and hugged Rose. "Thank you si much! But you have to came with me Rose, I need your help otherwise I don't think I'll ever get around to talking to ALbus about what I actually want to talk about."

Rose sighed, she knew that Scorpius was going to be there and he was the last person she wanted to see during the holidays. She looked at Lunette's face, a mix of worry helplessness and excitement. "Sure Lunette, whatever you need."

The next day Rose marched into the kitchen with a huge rucksack and dumped it on the table. Hermione and Ron were getting ready for work at the time but stopped to notice their tense daughter.

"What's wrong Rosie? Not looking forward to your day at the beach with Lunette and Al?" Ron asked

"It's not that, it's just that I'm trying to act normal for Lunette but I'm finding it hard. You know Malfoy is going to be there? I don't want to argue with that twat-"

"Language." Hermione warned.

"I don't want to argue with that idiot because it will draw away from what we are going there for."

"So sulking into the kitchen and grumpily dumping your bag on the table is you trying to act normal?" Ron raised one eyebrow.

Rose pulled out the nearest chair and slumped in it before answering. "I'm trying to get all my dread and irritation out before I'm face to face with that git."

"Rose! Language!" Hermione hissed again.

Rose only shrugged. "At least I'm saying it now and not when Lunette can hear it."

Hermione sat beside her daughter. "I think you're being a wonderful friend, Lunette is very luckily and I'm sure very grateful to have you in her life." She kissed Rose's forehead. "I love you and we'll see you later today." Hermione was shouting over her shoulder as she walked into the living room to collect her coat. "And you tell Lunette that if you are back in time she's very welcome to stay for dinner- oh hello there dear. Rose Lunette's here!"

Rose looked at her dad and sighed.

"You can do it Rosie. You're a good friend and you are able of not getting angry at that Malfoy prat for one whole day."

"Thanks dad."

"Ready to go Rose." Lunette's voice shook as she popped her head in the kitchen. Her face a mixture of excitement and fear.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Rose sounded a lot more excited than she actually was. "Are you ready to see Al?"

Lunette sighed. "I'm desperate to see Albus."

 **HUNSTANTON**

"No."

"I'm telling you the truth."

"Scorp, there is no way Mae Blinston asked you out again!"

"Albus, have I ever lied to you before?"

Scorpius and Albus were near the sea, digging a hole in the sand.

"Can she not take a hint?"

"It's not that, she just thinks that when I'm saying 'I just like being your friend' I'm actually saying 'keep trying, we'll be together someday'. I'm actually worried about her, I think she keeps on thinking we have conversations about dating when actually we don't."

"Oh, forgot to tell you, I got an 'E' in my potions O.W.L! Isn't that great? I rarely get Exceeds Expectations!"

"Well done! Great."

""It must've been that module when we had to work in partners. It really helped. Let me guess, you got 'O' is everything again?"

Scorpius grit his teeth. "No, I got an 'A' for Acceptable in potions."

Albus stopped digging to look at Scorpius and work out whether or not his friend was serious.

"What? How come?"

"The partners bit, it counts for more than I realised. Which means my exams can go as well as I like, but the partner bit only gained me a 'P' for Poor. So my exam scores and this one module leveled out at an 'A'."

"Sorry mate, I know that must suck."

Scorpius went back to digging to distract himself. "Yep. I had the worst partner."

"You're not seriously blaming Rose for this?"

"Let's just get back to digging." And they did, for a while.

Scorpius stopped digging for a while and looked at his surroundings. The sun was shining, the water was warm, or as warm as it can get in England, and they were in a hole just deep enough that it was at Albus's eye level. "Mate, why are we doing this?"

Albus shrugged. "Every year I see muggle kids from ages 5 to 17, I figured it must be fun otherwise why would they do it?"

"This is fun?" Scorpius said dryly as he raised his eye skeptically.

Albus shrugged again. "It's keeping my mind off Lunette. Digging a hole beats the agonising torture of thinking about how she's going to break my heart." Albus flopped onto the ground and looked up at the blue sky.

Scorpius didn't join him as the hole wasn't wide enough to fit two people sitting down and Albus was half sitting on his foot anyway.

"Hey, well maybe this would be funner if Lily of Hugo were also digging a hole. We could compete-"

"Stop it Scorp, I know digging a hole isn't fun compared to wizard stuff like quidditch. But we're on a beach surrounded by muggles. This is the best we can do." Albus sounded just as bored at Scorpius was.

There were a couple more minutes of silence. Scorpius was thinking about how to cheer his best friend up while Albus thought about Lunette and how she would love the beach. It was sunny and bright just like her. She would find the muggles interesting and she would love to go to the fair with him. Albus removed these happy thoughts immediately. 'There's no way she's like to do all those things with me. Even if she did, it would only be as friends.'

"If we dig deep enough we can build a tunnel." Scorpius suggested.

Albus looked up at him with an expression that said, 'that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It will be just as boring.' But he thought for a moment then jumped up. "Having a tunnel would be pretty fun." he said brightly and they both went back to work

After an hour or so Lily went out to look for her brother. She was slightly annoyed as Ginny had asked her to do it half way through finally winning chess against Hugo. Well that's what she thought, when in fact Hugo was trying out a new tactic and it was going well, Lily didn't stand a chance.

Lily saw James flirting with a bunch of girls down the beach. She waved at him and he reluctantly agreed to leave the girl's side. A few minutes later Lily spotted a hole sand and rolled her eyes. 'What is it with everyone's dumb obsession with digging holes when they go to the beach?'. But she noticed a very blonde head as she strutted past. She knew who was down there.

"Ugh, Scorp why don't we stop and go back to the tent?" Albus groaned as her stretched.

Scorpius threw his spade down. "I suggested that ages ago!"

"Yeah, well-"

Both boys yelled and scrambled up the walls of the hole as someone dumped cold water over their heads.

"Merlin's beard!" Albus exclaimed once they were finally out of the hole.

"Muggle beach." Scorpius whispered beside him.

They looked up to see Lily and James laughing their heads off and holding empty buckets.

"Come on Al, mum wants us back at the tent." Lily grinned.

Nether James nor Lily even looked at Scorpius.

Lunette emerged from the fireplace and thanked Mr Fugal, he just smiled and waved in reply.

Lunette's stomach was suddenly filled with butterflies as they drew near the forest where the Potter's tent was pitched. She stopped walking and her hair turned white as her face turned green. Rose was focussed on not getting angry at the sight of Scorpius and so she didn't notice Lunette falling behind for a while.

"Are you ok?"

Lunette tried to calm herself with short breaths. "Do I look ok?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"Honestly?"

Lunette nodded.

"No, you're hair is white, you look ill. Are you sure you want to do this now? We can wait until we get on the train."

"No." Lunete stood up boldly and concentrated on fixing her hair colours. "I need to do this now and I need you to help me not to chicken out."

Rose smiled and patted Lunette on the shoulder. "I'm here for you." They began walking again. "It's 12:30, aunt Ginny said that if we get to the tent before 1pm we can eat lunch with them."

"How far is their tent?"

"Well, usually they pitch it deep enough in the forest that they can put up protective spells without muggles seeing them do it, but also close enough to the edge of the forest so that the beach is only a few meters away."

Lunette nodded again before panicking... again. "Rose! What am I going to say to him?!"

"I thought you had it planned out?"

"I did! But now it's gone out of my head!"

"Lunette, have you decided whether or not you want to date Al?"

She thought for a while. "No, I haven't decided."

"Then just talk to him normally, treat like the friend he is and then maybe your decision will become clearer."

Lunette spontaneously hugged Rose. "I know you're not a hug person, but I just want you to know how much it means to me that you've organised this and come with me."

"I'd do anything for my friends"

They were nearing the tent, Harry had strategically placed a Gryffindor scarf around a tree near them so Rose would be able to find them. Just then, Ginny suddenly appeared, as did the tent but slower. She was taking down the protective spells to let Lunette and Rose find them.

"Hey Rosie!" Ginny greeted her niece.

"Hey aunt Ginny," She leaned slightly to the left and saw Harry coming towards them. "Hey uncle Harry."

Albus, Lily, James, Hugo and Scorpius had been confused when Ginny and Harry left the tent without saying a word. Then the sound of other people scared them slightly.

"What if the protective spells didn't work?" Albus muttered.

James stood. "Wait here, I'll check."

The sound of laughing confused the remaining four even more so they all left their lunch to investigate. Albus taking the lead.

Lunette grinned at the sight of Albus. She was about to greet him but Scorpius popped out from behind him.

"Hi Lunette." he waved with a confused smile on his face.

"Scorpius, hi!" Lunette smiled, then realistaion came over her and her expression dropped. "Oh, Scorpius is here." she spun around to see Rose who was looked slightly annoyed and looking at anything else. "Oh Rose I'm sorry I didn't know-"

"It's fine." Rose brushed her off, knowing that the only thing important was getting Lunette and Albus talking.

"But you did know? And you came anyway?" Lunette was in awe at how much of a good friend Rose was and hugged her. "Thank you so much."

Rose staggered back at the force of the hug, she felt a bit awkward and patted Lunette's back a few times. "Yeah, well isn't there someone else you'd rather be hugging?"

"Oh, right."

The girls were invited in for lunch and most had a merry time. Lily and James were trying to talk at the same time to Rose while Scorpius did everything in his power not to look at her. But neither Rose nor Scorpius could help but exchange the occasional scowl. Meanwhile Lunette happily chatted away to Hugo, Harry and Ginny. Albus sat staring at Lunette, wondering why she could possibly be there.

'Is she here to answer me? Did she come all this way just to say yes? No Al, you're being ridiculous, why would anyone as amazing as Lunette want to go out with you?' Albus thought quietly to himself. 'But why would she come all this way just to say she only wanted to be friends? Oh, Merlin, maybe that's why Rose is here too. To comfort me when Lunette inevitably tells me that she's never liked me and that being friends will just be too awkward. I'm such an idiot, I shouldn't have opened my mouth.'

"Al, Al, are you ok?" Rose whispered to him as the two of them were left to do the washing up.

"What?" Albus was pulled out of his own thoughts.

"You haven't said anything since me and Lunette arrived."

"Oh," Albus turned to see Lunette playing chess with Scorpius as Hugo helped her and James, Ginny and Harry talked about quidditch with her. "Rose, why is she here? Not that I don't want Lunette here, it's just a bit sudden."

Rose shrugged. "She wants to talk to you. But she's got to hurry up because we're leaving via floo network at Mr Fugal's shop before 6pm."

"But what does she want to talk about?"

"I don't know Al." Rose sighed. She wished she had a proper answer for her favourite cousin, to put his nerves at ease.

"Rose, you must know-"

"I said I don't know!" Rose spoke in a harsh whisper. "If I knew I would tell you. I don't think even Lunette knows what she's going to say. All I know is that you guys have a lot to figure out before she answers your question."

Albus sighed as he dried up the last plate. "I like her so much Rose, this is killing me."

She wrapped one arm around his shoulders. "I know Al, I know."

"Hey, Albus." Lunette said quietly as she approached them. "Do you think we could go for a walk?"

Albus gulped. "Yeah sure Lunette, let me just um, er g- um-"

"Grab your shoes." Rose finished his sentence for him.

"Yes! Sh-shoes." Albus sighed with relief before whispering to Rose. "Thanks."

As Albus jumped away Rose leaned towards Lunette. "Go easy on him and exercise patience, he's nervous and more awkward than usual."

Eventually Lunette and Albus left, James went to flirt with girls again, Lily and Hugo had gone exploring the beach and Ginny and Harry decided to go into town to get a few more supplies for the rest of the week. Rose and Scorpius were left waiting in a hot and stuffy tent for Albus and Lunette to return.

They were silent. They sat on opposite side if the tent. They didn't look at each other.

Scorpius stood and grabbed a book from his bed before returning back to his seat. Rose watched him out of the corner of her eye as he sat and read. A couple of minutes later Rose stood and rummaged through Lily's trunk and pulled out a magazine. It wasn't exactly what she was looking for, but come mind-numbingly dull magazine was better than staring at her feet.

Scorpius looked up as Rose slumped back into her chair, she looked back, they glared at one another before settling down and reading.

It took Rose only a couple of minutes to read the magazine from cover toe cover. Annoyed, she stood again to search Lily's trunk. All she found her magazines. She huffed as she threw herself back into her chair and flicked harshly between the pages, not really looking at them. As much as Rose loved her family, she wanted nothing more than to get away from Scorpius. She felt that anymore time spent near him and she would explode and argue with him for no reason.

The silence was irritating Scorpius. The flicking of the magazine pages was irritating him. The fact that he couldn't talk openly with an old friend irritated him. Everything about the situation he was in, was putting him on edge.

There was a sudden BANG and Rose looked up, shocked. Scorpius had slammed his book shut and was glaring at her.

"Yeah, there is someone else in this room!" he stood and took a step closer, irritation in his tone and movement. "While you keep on flicking through your crappy magazines, making loud noises, _some_ people are _trying_ to read! You should try it some time, it might boost your grades up to something decent."

Rose couldn't help herself, she stood and matched his irritation. "Oh shut up Malfoy, you're just bored! Stop being such a spoilt git and get over yourself."

"Why are _you_ mad at _me_?!" Scorpius was nearing a shout.

"Oh, can a straight 'O' student like yourself not work it out?"

"Why are you bringing my grades into this?! We're not at school." Scorpius was really confused, which irritated him even more.

"I didn't bring grades into this, you did! Stop shoving your stupid grades in my face! The only reason neither of us did as well as we usually do in potions is because _you_ decided to ignore _me_ during the teamwork module!"

"You can't blame me for that failure!"

"Oh, but you can blame me?!" Rose raised her eyebrows "I hate you Malfoy, but I always thought that maybe you were decent enough to pull together and ignore our rivalry for the sake of our grades! But apparently not! You ruined both of our futures." Rose dumped the magazine on the chair and stormed out of the tent.

Scorpius was still angry and followed her out.

"Hey! This isn't all my fault!"

"Yes it is! I was ready to work with you! To save my grades I asked to change partners or even do the work myself!"

"So you were just looking out for your own grades? So who was the one not working as a team?!"

"You're such an arsehole Malfoy! I was looking out for myself because I couldn't count on you!"

"Well at least I'm not some stuck up, arse kissing, teachers pet Weasel who only looks out for herself!"

Rose clenched her fists and took a deep breath. "Maybe I had to be a 'teacher's pet' because you couldn't contribute to the work and would rather we both fail! I'm the only reason we didn't get a 'T' for Troll!"

"What did you just say?!"

Rose rolled her eyes. "I was _simply_ pointing out that you wouldn't have passed if it weren't for-"

"No! No that's not what you're saying! You a're saying I'm a failure and that I should be _grateful_ to you! Is that not what you're saying?! That you're better than me?! That you're little miss perfect and I'm just some scum you got stuck with?!"

Rose was madder than ever, Scorpius was putting words in her mouth and making her seem like the bad guy. "Maybe that _is_ what I'm saying!" she regretted those words immediately but kept on going as she was too proud to stop. "You let your personal life interfere with _our_ grades and you ruined everything for me! You're not scum, you're just selfish! It's ok for _you_. Little rich boy just has to run to daddy and ask him to fix everything!" she put on a whiny voice to mock him. "'Daddy, my grades aren't high enough' or 'Daddy, because I almost failed an exam, it spoils my little line of straight 'O's and now no one will hire me because it will prove I can't work as a team. But oh well, we're rich. Can I have some money?'. I'm saying that _you_ have tarnished _my future_! It's easy for you, you have money and connections. I only have whatever brains I have left. And _thank you_ for reminding me that I can only rely on myself to get me through life!" Rose stormed away along the beach.

"But you admit that you never wanted to work with me?" Scorpius shouted at her and Rose stopped to listen. "You admit that you made everything a lot harder for yourself because you don't _trust_ me. Fine! You're accepting that you think you're better than me? The only reason we failed was because you couldn't be bothered to make an effort!"

Rose was shaking with anger. "You think whatever you want Malfoy. You obviously are incapable of listening. I don't care" she charged on, away from Scorpius.

"So you're walking away?! So I win? That's it! You're accepting that it was all your fault!" Scorpius shouted.

"That's what you think Malfoy." Rose mumbled to herself. "You can take all the blame off yourself and be the spoilt brat we all know you are."

Despite announcing his victory in a very small part of teir rivalry, Scorpius felt horrid inside. He felt like throwing up or screaming into a pillow. He slumped back into his chair but couldn't concentrate on reading. His thoughts were full of how it really was his fault that his grades in potions weren't what he had wanted. He knew deep down inside that he was the one who had slipped up. Not Rose. Rose had actually tried.

Meanwhile Lunette and Albus had been walking in silence for over twenty minutes before Lunette got the courage to say anything.

"I love you Albus, I hope you know that." she said quietly.

Albus nodded, telling himself not to get his hopes up. She obviously only meant it as a friend.

"But only as a friend." Lunette said out loud, but to herself she added 'I think.'

"I know." Albus said. "And I love you too."

"But, Albus, I think the way you love me and the way I love you is very different."

Albus only nodded.

"But how do you know?" Lunette blurted out her burning question.

"What?"

"How do you know the difference in the way you love someone? I mean, I love you and I love Rose and I love Scorpius and I love my parents. And so do you, but how do you tell the difference between how you feel for each person?"

"Umm," Albus was stumped for a little while. "Well, I love Rose because she's family. It's the same as the way you feel about your parents or grandparents. They're family so you have to love them. But you also love the because of who they are and because even if they weren't family, you know they would treat you just the same and you would still love them."

"Right, I see. But how about Scorpius? You love Scorpius right?"

Albus felt extremely uncomfortable. "Well, yeah, I guess. He's my best mate. Yeah- I- I- it's not- I guess I do I love him, in a way. But it's very different to how I feel about you. Scorpius is a best mate, he's always there for me and so is Rose. I've grown up with Rose and I've had to endure prejudice, stereotypes and assumptions based on family history with Scorpius. But when it comes to you, I don't know. It's definitely different. When I look at you, I know that you're the one sit and think about. When I'm with you I feel like I can do anything because you're near. You- you give me strength. You even make me feel less awkward," Albus smiled

Lunette giggled.

Albus continued. "I know it may seem like I'm more awkward around you, but that's just because I'm constantly trying not to let my feelings get out of control and embarrass the both of us in the middle of the corridors. This is what I think is love. Love beyond friendship. But I guess love can only be mutual, so it all depends on how you feel. And deep down inside I think you know that you feel the same way. Lunette, you can take your time. Love is a big thing for a couple of sixteen year olds."

"But what makes you so sure that I feel the same way? I don't even know how I feel! You truly do amaze me Albus," Lunette smiled softly. "You say these wonderful things to me even though we've only known each other for a year."

"Lunette, the first time we met, I did something that would humiliate any girl. But you only laughed and smiled. That showed me that you must care deeply about me. The cola can is even an inside joke now. I have never been so certain about any feeling I've ever had. And you need to decide whether you feel the same. But I don't need answer straight away. You take all the time you need, and I mean it. I can wait for you. I'll always wait for you."

"And if I find that I don't love you this way?" Lunette was almost scared to ask.

Albus sighed. "If I love you enough, and I do, I will find a way to move on. Lunette I want you to have everything that will make you happy, whether or not it destroys me. And I know how good a friend you are, and I would never want to ruin what we already have. But for now, while you take all the time you need, I won't give up on you, on us."

Lunette felt like crying. "But Albus, I'm not some perfect girl! You know more about Rose and Felix going than I do, but from what I heard, he thought she was perfect and Rose knew that no one could ever live up to that!"

"Lunette." Albus stopped walking and placed a comforting hand on her cheek. "I know you're not perfect, I know _I'm_ not perfect. Nobody is and nobody can be. But all I can promise is that I will continue to be your friend, whether you love me back or not."

Lunette's head dropped onto Albus's shoulder as they hugged. She sniffed and tried to tell herself not to cry.

"Thanks for explaining your feelings Albus, you put that really well."

Albus smiled and rubbed her back. "Thanks, I'm surprised I got any of that out. I've been thinking it for months but only now have I had the guts."

When they arrived back at the tent, it was eerily quiet.

"Have they finally killed each other?" Albus whispered to Lunette.

Lunette spotted ginger hair out of the corner of her eye, deeper in the forest. She nodded her head in that direction. Albus smiled and Lunette left him to find Rose. Albus silently opened the tent flap and saw Scorpius sulking in his chair.

"They're leaving right?" Scorpius asked angrily.

Albus answered yes.

"Good. I can't stand Weasley, it's bad enough she ruins my day to day at Hogwarts, now she had to ruin the only thing I look forward to every year."

Albus placed a comforting hand on Scorpius's shoulder and patted him a few times. He didn't have anything to say. Then so called 'them' Scorpius was angry about was his best friend and cousin and Lunette.

Scorpius sighed. "I'm sorry mate, I like Lunette, she's a good friend. But things have gone so badly for me and Weasley that it just makes me mad to see her."

"I know what you meant." Albus felt like he was between a rock and a hard place.

Lunette discovered that Rose had climbed up a tree, and Lunette herself was finding it difficult to reach her After a few minutes of trying, she simply called out for Rose.

"You don't suppose you could come down here could you?"

Rose smiled, somehow Lunette's attempts at climbing had amused her and clambed her down slightly.

Rather than climbing down, Rose simply dropped and landed on her feet to both her and Lunette's surprise. Yet her gracefulness didn't last long and she soon began wobble like normal Rose and had to use the tree trunk to stabalise her.

"Rose, it's only 4pm but if you want to leave now we can. I've talked to Albus."

"I'm only leaving when you want to Lunette, I'm not letting some argument between me and Scorpius get between you and Al."

"But I've talked to Al." Lunette said quickly in a more desperate voice than she meant to.

Rose understood. "You want to leave and think about it."

Lunette knew that Rose had figured out exactly what she was thinking, but she only shrugged and said in a high pitch and unconvincing voice. "Sure, whatever you want Rose."

"Alright, let me just say goodbye to my family and we can go."

 **LUNETTE'S HOME**

Lunette spent the rest of the summer shut in her room, thinking hard about Albus and what she felt for him. When she told Rose this, her friend only smiled and said.

"So you've been thinking about him a lot?"

"Well, yeah. This is Albus, he means so much to me. I want to be sure of my decision."

Rose's smile just grew.


	6. Chapter 6 SIXTH YEAR

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE LAST CHAPTER, I KNOW IT WAS _VERY_ LONG. ANY FEEDBACK IS APPRECIATED BUT PLEASE NOTHING MEAN. I'M STILL A HUMAN BEING WITH FEELINGS. SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG. PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF LUNETTE. NOW BACK INTO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF J. 'S HARRY POTTER. THIS IS MY INTERPRETATION USING NONE OF MY OWN CHARACTERS.

 **SIXTH YEAR. 24 YEARS LATER**

 **ON THE TRAI** N

Lunette hadn't said anything since Rose had spotted her on the platform. It was weird. Rose felt uncomfortable for the first time around Lunette. After half an hour of silence, she saw Wesley McLaggen walk past. She knew that if Wesley was making his way to the prefect compartment before her, then she was _really_ late.

She said a quick goodbye to Lunette, who didn't seem to notice, and made her way to the prefect compartment. There, just like last year, the only free space was next to Scorpius. They scowled at one another then turned their attention to the new Head Boy and Girl.

"Dom?!" Rose exclaimed when she saw the new Head Girl.

"Hi!" Dominique waved enthusiastically. "I'm the new Head Girl! Surprise! Just like my dad was. And I wasn't even a prefect."

Rose grinned "You kept this one quiet."

Dom smiled mischievously. "I know, brilliant surprise right? I just hope I do well."

"You'll be great Dom."

"Thanks, anyway moving on..."

As they were all happily listening, someone spoke up in a groan.

"Why do we even have to do this? It's stupid. No one cares about prefects. I didn't even want to be one!"

Rose instantly assumed it was Scorpius and snapped her head to the left to glare at him but he was already glaring at someone else. Lloyd Parkinson. Rose grit her teeth. What idiot made him a prefect? Last year she didn't seem him at all, that was because he spent most of his time in detention for bullying first years. Her poor cousin Louis got it bad.

Dom glared at Lloyd. But spoke calmly. "You're Parkinson, right?"

Lloyd shrugged, "What's it to you?"

"Headmaster Fairweather is a good man, he believes in people even if they're screw ups like you who the rest of us think don't deserve it. You got in tones of trouble last year so Fairweather thought he'd give you a chance at authority to see it makes you wake up and act more mature. As Head Girl and Boy, we have been given an extra responsibility this year to make you respect fellow students and to obey the teachers. You step one toe out of line and you could be facing expulsion. Parkinson, you have two weeks to prove to us that you can do it or we'll get your arse kicked out of here quicker than you can say quidditch. Do I make myself clear?"

Rose smugly smiled. 'That's my cousin.' She thought proudly to herself.

Lloyd was obviously intimidated by Dom and begrudgingly nodded.

"Jees, no need to be such a bitch. I thought Hufflepuffs were meant to be pushovers." Lloyd mumbled.

Don didn't hear this snide comment but the new Head Boy, John, a Gryffindor boy who was friends with Roxanne, had heard and stepped forward.

"That's strike one Parkinson. You have two chances left, play nice."

Lloyd rolled his eye but still breathed a small sigh of relief for getting away with it. As the rest of the prefects filed out to patrol the corridors, John waited for Lloyd who was the last one out.

"Oh, by the way, as soon as we get to Hogwarts, you've got a detention with Professor Longbottom."

"What?! What did I do?!" Lloyd was outraged.

"No one calls the Head Girl a bitch. How dare you undermine us, we have been chosen specially to represent and be a model to our fellow students."

Albus walked past the compartment Lunette was in, she was staring hard out the window.

"Lunette? Are you ok?" Albus asked softly

"What? Oh, hi Albus." Lunette smiled sweetly at him.

"How was the rest of your summer?"

"Oh, well, I've been thinking very hard about how I feel for you. And it's very frustrating."

Albus felt concerned. "What's wrong? I'm sorry, I've made everything worse. I've ruined this friendship haven't I?" He then proceeded to bang his head on the window.

Lunette stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's not you Albus, I'm frustrated with myself. I don't know how I feel about you exactly and it's making me angry at myself."

"Well, do you know how you _want_ to feel about me?"

Lunette bit her lip and nodded.

"Do you think you might just feel the way you want to?"

Lunette sighed and shrugged. "I don't know Albus, that's what I'm trying to work out." she reached out and held his hand. "Thanks for being patient and thanks for not giving up on me. I know this wait is hurting, but I just need a little more time to think. I don't want to mess up when it comes to you."

Albus forced a smile. "I understand, and I don't want to mess up when it comes to you either. So you take all the time you need."

Lunette nodded and went back to staring out the window. Louis was walking past, now in his third year at Hogwarts. He spotted Lunette and made conversation, Hugo and Lily, both in their fourth year, soon joined them. Lily, being a chatterbox entertained them all, Hugo constantly offered hugs and Louis's naturally cheerful and kind personality all combined to distract Lunette from her internal question about her feelings for Albus. Albus himself managed to sneak out while his cousins cheered up Lunette. He could see that he had been the cause of Lunette's unusual quietness. Albus mentally kicked himself for even bringing up his feelings.

'Why am I so stupid? I've ruined a perfectly good friendship simply because I had to have feelings for the most amazing person in the world.' Albus thought to himself. He thought he understood why Rose wasn't massive fan of feelings, especially those that she couldn't hide and physically made her look upset.

Albus ran into Rose in the corridor, he only nodded at her before moving on. Rose caught his arm as he tried to pass.

"Albus, it's not your fault Lunette hasn't answered yet. She just cares about you a great deal and wants to make the right decision."

Albus nodded and muttered. "I know."

 **FIRST DAY**

Professor Neville Longbottom, Head of Gryffindor and herbology teacher, was handing out the new school year timetable to each student. Rose and her roommate Phil were just moaning about the fact that they were stuck with Slytherin for potions and care of magical creatures, when James and Lorcan suddenly popped next to Rose.

"Hey there cuz!" James said cheerfully.

His cheerfulness, especially since it was morning, and the fact that he was hugging her, irritated Rose. She scowled at him. James took the hint and let go of her.

"So, dearest cousin, ready for quidditch tryouts next week?"

Rose shrugged. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"Awesome!" Lorcan grinned

"Please tell me that you're taking this seriously Rose, You _know_ that quidditch is the only thing I can't joke about."

Rose smiled and patted James on the shoulder. "It's alright, you'll be happy to know that I'm actually nervous about the tryouts "

James sighed with relief and was about to speak again when he heard his little sister shouting.

"I said piss off arsehole! I've said no about a thousand times and I'm not about to change my mind after a few minutes." Lily was shouting at a fellow Gryffindor in her year. She stormed off and sat between Roxanne and Hugo and opposite Rose.

"Are you ok Lils?" Hugo asked as he gave her a hug.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that this guy and his friend keep on asking me out. I mean, it's only our first day and they're asking me out?! I mean, they never even noticed me before. What's changed? Have they suddenly become idiots?..." Lily began to waffle on about nonsense while Rose finished her toast, not really paying attention. It was like that with Lily, she would ramble on and you only really needed to listen to her first few sentences to know what was going on. Rose looked at each of them, James was staring at his ex girlfriend Lucile, Hugo was nodding along but it was easy to tell that he was think of something else and Roxanne was looking at Lily but not listening. Lorcan seemed to be the only one actually hearing what she was saying. Rose knew this because, unlike the rest of them, he was nodding at the right times.

"Lils, if I might interrupt here." Roxanna spoke up. "I think I know why they're asking you out. You've gotten a lot hotter over the summer."

"Excuse me?" Lily was confused.

James got uncomfortable, hearing people talk about how hot his sister was, was not something he liked. He stood up awkwardly and had to physically drag Lorcan away from Lily, but once he explained that he wanted to shout at the guys that had bothered Lily, Lorcan was quite ready to help. Hugo felt uncomfortable too and made an excuse to go and talk to Scorpius and Albus on the Slytherin table.

"You're hot Lily!" Roxanne continued. "And guys tend to notice these things. You've grown taller, your hair is longer and you've, you know, filled out more."

Lily laughed until she realised that Roxanne was serious. Rose could see what she meant, Lily looked older and more mature.

"Lily, you're turning fifteen soon right? You're really coming into your teenage years, and by the looks of things, these years might just be very kind to you."

Phil looked Lily up and down and added. "Lunette is the prettiest girl in school right? She's one quarter veela, well you're almost as pretty and you've got no veela in you. You, Lunette and your cousin Dom are the prettiest girls in school right now. You're going to be getting a lot of attention. Ugh, I envy you-"

"Ok, how about you stop talking Phil." Rose said quickly with a smile to shut her friend up, seeing how Lily was scowling at Phil. Lily wasn't a massive fan of Rose's roommates Phil, Mel and Anna.

Rose stood and dragged Phil off to their first lesson. Herbology. They were dealing with more dangerous plants than ever in Herbology but at least Longbottom allowed them to swear loudly if the Venomous Tentacula seized them unexpectedly from behind. He had sworn multiple time in front of the students, now it was their turn.

When Rose and Phil were gone Lily mumbled to Hugo. "I don't want to be noticed because apparently I'm suddenly pretty. I want to be smart like Rose."

Hugo hugged her again. "I know how you feel."

Lily laughed.

"Well, kind of. I mean, I want to be as smart as Rose but I think I got my dad's brains." Hugo shrugged.

Later that afternoon, Phil ran off to meet up with Mel who was still having a crisis as to whether she should hang out with Phil and Rose, her real friends, or Anna and Robin, the two girls that ignored her and only cared about boys.

Rose went to the library. She saw Scorpius and sat three tables away, they were both doing the same homework for History of Magic, they saw each other's textbooks. If it were anyone else in the world, they would be working together.

" _Ventus._ " Scorpius muttered and a small gust of wind blew Rose's parchment around. As she frantically picked up her parchment, she heard Scorpius sniggering and knew instantly that it was on purpose.

Rose rolled her eyes and whispered a jinx back. " _Flipendo_ ". This jinx was meant to knock over the recipient but as Scorpius was sitting down, he and his chair simply toppled to the side. Rose hid a grin as the librarian eyed them suspiciously.

Scorpius was about to jinx Rose back when both he and Rose dropped their wands without meaning to. Their heads spun to where the disarming charm had come from. Lunette was grinning mischievously at Rose and Scorpius from the other side of the room. They rolled their eyes and went back to work. Lunette was working so hard, otherwise she would have joined them, or made her two friends sit together with her.

The sound of giggling and quiet chatter irritated Rose and Scorpius so much that they both looked over to the windows at the same time. A bunch of third years were staring and gossiping about someone.

They were looking at Lunette.

"She won't be single for long after we leave Hogwarts." one of them said not so quietly.

Her friend scoffed. "Are you kidding? A girl as pretty as that, there are two possible outcomes. Either she falls in love straight away or she's single forever and dies an old maid."

"Why would she die an old maid?"

"Two reasons. One, because _she_ thinks she's too pretty and too good for anyone or two, because _no one_ dares ask her out because _they_ think she's too pretty or too good for them because that's how pretty but stupid girls think."

Lunette had heard. She held back tears, scooped up her belongings and ran out of the library. The annoying third years just laughed more and continued.

"I tell you, if the second reason is true, then only the good for nothing cocky guys will talk to her and she might just have enough sense in that pretty little head to not go for them."

"Ugh, it'll be a shame to see such a pretty face get old and lonely-"

"Merlin's beard! Shut up!" Rose and Scorpius found themselves standing and shouting at the two girls at the same time. They scowled at one another but decided their hatred could wait.

"How _dare_ you say such things about a close friend of mine? Lunette Tinker is not just 'another pretty face'! She's kind, generous and a genius at potions! Despite what others may think." Rose scowled.

Scorpius turned to her, momentarily forgetting the other girls and that he hated Rose. "She's good at potions?" he asked in a normal tone as if he were speaking to Albus. "Oh, I didn't know that."

Rose nodded. "She's brilliant, better than either of us, talk to Al about it." Rose almost smiled, their brief discussion about Lunette made her also forget that she hated him.

"Lunette doesn't judge anyone and the _least_ the rest of us can do is not judge her!" Scorpius went back to shouting at the girls.

"And besides, why does it even matter whether she may or may not marry?! Why are you assuming that she even wants to be married? Who put it into your tiny brains that all girls ever think about is marriage or dating?"

"Exactly! Lunette is talented and she's a people person! She has a bright and successful future ahead of her and all you lot think about is if she's pretty enough to get a man!"

One of the girls scoffed and rolled her eyes in a very stereotypical teenage way. "Jees, don't get your knickers in a twist. Ugh, we were only talking anyway, you shouldn't be so rude, listening into other people's conversations."

Her friend nodded in agreement and replied in a very annoying and whiny tone. "Yeah, like, whatever we want to talk about, is, like, none of your business."

Rose grit her teeth and clenched her fists, she turned around and told herself to breath and be patient. Scorpius raked his hands through his hair in frustration. These third years were just too irritating.

"It's our business because she's _our_ friend!"

"Yeah! Go and gossip about your own petty lives and leave _our_ friend alone. She deserves better than your pathetic assumptions based on her looks."

The third year boy standing behind them and looking bored finally spoke. "Wait, she's _your_ friend? As in, Scorpius Malfoy and Rose Weasley-"

"Granger-Weasley!" Rose interrupted but was ignored.

"You guys actually have the same friends. So you're actually friends too? Ah, this is great, Chris is gonna _die_ when I tell him! Malfoy and Weasley actually like each other." He began laughing, until he noticed the angry faces of Rose and Scorpius had just got ten times scarier,

"We are _not_ friends! I hate her!"

"I would never be friends with this twa- with him!"

"And so what if we're both friends with Lunette?! What's it to you?" Scorpius had gone back to raking his hands through his hair

"Lunette is amazing enough to be anyone's friend! Stop judging people that you're not lucky enough to know."

"Now get lost or it's a detention with Professor Stockett for all of you!"

Once the third years had literally ran away, Rose and Scorpius were told to leave. Amid all the shouting, they hadn't heard the librarian trying to shush them. As soon as they marched out, Rose sharply turned to Scorpius.

"You can't threaten them with detention! They technically didn't break any rules."

"I don't care! Lunette is our friend and I would've gotten angry with them whether or not they were gossiping about one of my best friends. But you wouldn't, all you care about are the precise rules."

Rose snorted in disbelief. "Oh right, because _you're_ so moral." she mocked sarcastically. "If it were me they were gossiping about, you would just join in or let it slide! So don't act all high and mighty, whether you like or not Malfoy, you know I'm right." Rose poked him in the chest.

"Oh yeah, and what if they were bad mouthing and making assumptions about me?! You would just join in too!" Scorpius poked her arm back.

"No, I wouldn't Malfoy! But I would probably just ignore it."

"Ha! I win!"

"At least I'm honest, you wanker!" Rose stormed off.

Scorpius kicked the wall in frustration and stared out the nearby window.

"Are you ok?" A soft and apprehensive voice drifted towards him

"What?!" Scorpius said a bit too forcefully. He spun around and saw it was Katie Webb. "Oh, sorry, yeah I'm fine. It's Webb right?"

Katie nodded. "You can say it you know, I know that everybody calls me that."

"Huh?" Scorpius hadn't really been listening. He had never had a proper conversation with Katie but on the rare occasion when she did interact with other people, normally Katie would only say a few words before moving on to the library. "Call you what?"

Katie shrugged and went slightly red. "I know people call me the friendless Ravenclaw. I'm a nobody and an outsider. Only Rose and Albus have actually talked to me."

Scorpius nodded and stared out the window again. He didn't want to talk about Rose.

"You know," Katie broke the silence. "I heard you and Rose defending Tinker. That was a nice thing to do. She must be as great as you guys say."

"She really is an awesome person and a great friend."

"No, I mean yeah, but Tinker must be a _really_ good person and a _really_ close friend to both of you. I mean, she has to be, otherwise you and Rose wouldn't have come together in agreement so quickly."

"Yeah, Lunette's one of my best friends and she just so happens to be Weasley's too. I don't actually think either of us mind that we have to share her. So much as I hate Weasley, she's not bad at being a friend if you deserve it." for some reason talking about Rose was actually calming Scorpius down. He had been sure it would only anger him further.

Katie smiled. "You should know. I remember back in first year when you guys and Albus were inseparable."

"That was a long time ago. But you're her friend right? So you're not the so called 'friendless Ravenclaw.'."

"Yeah, she's great. She even gives up her Hogsmeade weekends to hang out with me if she's too busy during the week."

"What?" Scorpius had never heard about this before.

"Umm, yeah, I thought you knew. Pretty much, if you don't see Rose in Hogsmeade, she's hanging out with me in the library. We don't talk much, but from what I gather, she'd rather be inside and away from people. Come on, you must have noticed that she isn't there sometimes?"

Scorpius nodded slowly. "I have, but I assumed she was avoiding me."

Katie chuckled. "You guys argue everyday, I'm pretty sure you seek each other out just to fight. I don't think either of you are trying to avoid each other."

It dawned on Scorpius that Katie might just be right. And it scared him.

"I'll see you around Scorpius." Katie waved goodbye.

"Yeah, see ya. Maybe I'll hang around with again Katie, you're not so bad."

"And you're not so bad yourself Scorpius."

 **QUIDDITCH TRYOUTS, END OF SEPTEMBER.**

Rose felt sick with nerves. It was the day of the tryouts. She was ready, she had been practising all summer, she knew she was amazingly good but her nerves were still getting to her. Hugo, Lily and Lunette forced her to eat some toast before she left. It was too early, Mel wasn't awake yet and Phil was also too nervous to wish Rose luck.

As Rose and Phil approached the changing rooms, she heard James talking miserably to someone. She stopped and listened, not wanting to intrude. She told Phil to go ahead and wait on the pitch.

"But, Lucile, I really like you. I've always really liked you. I may have dated other girls-"

"Tonnes of other girls!"

"Yeah, but you were always special. I break up with people all the time and it means nothing to me, but when I broke up with you, it hurt like hell. I really, _really_ like you Lucile. "

"And I really _really_ like a good scone with jam and clotted cream, but I'm not going on a date with it." Lucile retorted.

Rose heard James laugh a bit. "You see Lucile, even though you're hurting me by saying no in a ridiculous way, you still make me laugh. How is it you can make me desperate and heartbroken but still make me smile?"

"James! We tried going out a few times and it never worked."

"One more chance Lucile?" James pleaded.

"How many times are you going to say that? If I give you this chance and we mess it up again, I don't think either of us could go through a break up again. We're leaving this year James, let's just be friends for our last year."

"Lucile, please-"

"No. I can't do it again. Look, I think you're pretty special too but I think it's time we grew up and found other people. I'll always like you James, but we have to move on from petty little school romances that will mean nothing in the long run."

"Nothing? I meant nothing to you-"

"No! Ok, that came out wrong. But I think that when you find the lucky lass who's going to stick with you forever, I'll just be a distant but happy memory. And the same goes for me."

"Well good luck today." James sounded defeated.

"Thanks James." Lucile kissed him on the cheek. "I hope I'm good enough to stay on the team."

"So do I." James sighed and Lucile walked out.

Rose quickly ducked out of sight so Lucile wouldn't see that she had been listening in. She left it a few moments before making her way into the changing rooms to give James a chance to leave, but he didn't, so she just barged in.

"You heard all that right?" James said as soon as he realised it was Rose in the room with him.

Rose dumped her bag under one of the benches pushed along the walls and nodded. "Yep."

James sighed and slumped on bench. "Well there you have it, evidence that James Sirius Potter has a heart. He is not just an awesome prankster."

Rose sat beside him and sympathetically patted his arm. "I always knew you had a heart. Remember, you are practically an older brother to me."

"I don't know what to do Rose."

"Well, neither do I. But I do know what you're going to do right this second. You are going to go out on to that pitch and be the best quidditch captain that we all know that you are. You are going to be encouraging and fair. You will show people that James Sirius Potter is not just an awesome prankster, but an amazing organiser who is passionate about quidditch too."

"Thanks Rose. I hope to have you on my team this year." He patted her on the back as he stood. "But are you up for the competition? Everyone who turns up to these tryouts are serious and determined to get on the team."

"Oh I am _ready_ for it. Bring it on."

Rose was brilliant on the quidditch pitch. She tried out for keeper and shocked everyone. The very fact that she could stay on a broom with perfect balanced was a surprise to most, but the fact that she was better than all of those trying for keeper was amazing. But, after reflection, most students knew that they shouldn't have been too shocked. Rose seemed to excel in everything she did.

Once all the students trying out had landed safely on the ground, James announced to them all that the list of those who made the team would be in the Gryffindor common room in a couple of hours. All were very anxious. Most of the usual players wished Rose luck and that they hoped to be playing alongside her.

Rose spotted Albus on her way back to her room and stopped to chat.

"How's it going Al?"

Albus shrugged. "Have you seen Lunette? I feel like she's avoiding me."

"Well, it is quidditch tryout day. I'm assuming she's waiting around for the Hufflepuff tryouts in a little bit. I'm surprised you're not there, I would have thought that Malfoy would be trying out now and you watching him."

Albus shrugged again. "I was there for a little bit but I decided to go for a walk."

Rose placed a hand on on his shoulder and looked him in the eye. "Albus, are you sure you're ok?"

Albus shrugged to get her off of him. "I'm fine Rose, I'm just going to go back to the pitch. I should be cheering on Scorp. I'm not being a good friend."

"Well, in my opinion Malfoy doesn't deserve as good a friend as you."

Albsu gave a weak smile and trudged away.

 **LATER THAT NIGHT**

The list was up in the common room. Everyone was crowded around it after dinner while James sat smugly my the window. He was very proud of his decisions and of his new team. He had three new players, including Rose, and he hoped that they would be up for the challenge. He already had a written down schedule for practises and a couple of strategies he was hoping to work out with the team. His smile widened when he heard the excited shouts of those he had picked for the team.

James Potter….Captain/Chaser

Lucile Pond….Chaser

Roxanne Weasley….Chaser

Lorcan Scamander….Beater

Philomela Abel-Roy….Beater

Rose Granger-Weasley….Keeper

Ben Rome….Seeker

James's smile, however, disappeared as soon as he heard a very loud Grant Hathaway, who had tried out for chaser for the third year in a row, started complaining that James only ever chose his friends and family for the team. Lorcan sat next to James and was about to thank him when Grant went on a rant. They both rolled their eyes and James stood on the windowsill to make announcement to the whole common room.

"Oi! Fellow students! I chose the players for this years Gryffindor team because they were the best. Ok, so it's true that two of my cousins made the team, Roxanna and Rose, and yes neither of them have ever made the team before. That's because Rose has been, for years, too stubborn to let her talents be shown. And Roxanne has been a sub for any player that might not be able to play on the day of the match for three years. She just really proved herself to be better this year. Also, Lorcan and Lucile are on the team again, yes they have been my great friends for years, but they're amazing at quidditch. If you don't believe me, just watch us wipe the floor with Ravenclaw in a couple of weeks. If you didn't make the team, it means that you weren't good enough and need to practise more, or it was because you are incapable of working in a team. Thanks for listening, or whatever." James jumped down from the windowsill and saw Lucile smiling at him. His speech had let her know that he was ready just to be a friend for their last year.

James spotted Phil and high-fived her. "Abel-Roy, good work keeping up with Lorcan last year. And from your tryout this year, I expect you to do just as well this year too."

"Who's Ben Rome?" Rose asked Phil and James.

"Some kid in your year who I never noticed before." James said as he pointed to the tall dark haired boy in the corner.

Rose decided to go and introduce herself.

"Hey, it's Ben right? Well, I don't think we've ever spoken before. I'm Rose-"

"Yeah, I know you. We've been in a lot of the same classes since first year."

Rose's ears went slightly pink. "I'm really sorry, I guess I just never noticed you before."

Ben gave a wide grin. "It's cool, most people didn't. I grew loads over the summer and now people can't really ignore me. I think it's because I was never friends with the popular guys like Grant or Wesley."

Rose nodded. "Probably, I mean, those guys just always steal the spotlight. They're twats aswell so it's probably best that you weren't friends with them." She turned and they both watched as Grant and Wesley were sulking in the corner. "Crap, you're not friends with them now are you? Have I just slagged off your friends? Because I meant every word, but you don't seem to be the same as them."

Ban laughed. "No, not at all. They kind of bullied in our first and second year. But you were friends with Slytherins so you weren't around a lot to see."

"If it helps, I'm not friends with Malfoy now." Rose smiled.

Ben laughed again. "That is a tragedy, for him. You seem like a really great person."

"Thanks. I'll see you in class." Rose waved and made her towards Phil but Hugo intercepted her.

"Rose, there's someone who wants to talk to you." He said, his eyes flickering between her and the portal covered by the fat lady.

Rose didn't understand why her brother was acting so weird.

"Who?"

"Well, someone who's name I don't think would be very well received if I said it too loud."

Rose rolled her eyes, there were only a few people it could be.

"They're outside the common room?"

Hugo nodded. Rose sighed and trudged out, when Phil asked her where she was going Rose only said 'prefect duties.'

Rose pushed open the fat lady portrait and looked around the corridor. It was cold and dark around the walls where the candlelight did not reach. There she saw Scorpius, staring out of a window.

She cleared her throat to notify him that she was there.

"Weasley?" he asked, not bothering to turn around.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Rose sounded grumpy, Scorpius was beginning to regret coming. Rose joined him at the window, the stars were beautiful as always.

"Waiting for Lunette's answer is driving Albus mad." Scorpius finally said

"I've noticed, poor guy."

"Is there anyway, and bare in mind that I wouldn't be asking _you_ of all people for romantic advice if I had any other options. But since you know Lunette better than me-"

"You want to know how to make Lunette realise her feelings quicker by getting Albus to show her that he's the guy for her?"

"How did you know-?"

"I've been thinking about the same thing for weeks too. Lunette likes someone she can be easy and confident around. Someone she can talk to about family issues, quidditch, potions and general stuff that would seem boring to anyone else but is actually important to her. She likes to be sure, confident and loved enough by the person she is with to know that she can use her Metamorphmagus powers without feeling judged. Her favourite colour is purple, she loves hot chocolate and she likes Albus a lot more than she realises, even on the verge of love."

"What? So she must know how she feels about him already?"

"Damn, I don't think I was supposed to say that last one." Rose smiled smugly.

"But why hasn't she talked to him?! Why aren't they already living happily ever after?!"

"Because Lunette values friendship above everything. And Albus is a friend she is not prepared to let go of yet. She fears that they'll break up within a couple of weeks and their friendship will never be the same again."

"She's right, if they break up, their friendship is over. And not because either of them are bad at being friends, but because-"

"Because they like each other so much that their feelings will never completely go away." Rose finished his sentence.

They both sighed at the same time then sent a small but awkward smile to one another.

"Oh, you owe me two Galleons. I told you they wouldn't be together over the summer."

"Ah, true, but you _did_ say start of September, well it's the middle of September now. So neither of us won."

Rose rolled her eyes. "I was the closest so I win, you owe me."

"Nope. Neither of us were right."

"Fine, if you want to be let off on a _technicality_." Rose teased.

"It's _not_ a technicality! They're not together-!" Scorpius realised that Rose was just trying to wind him and stared at the stars again. "Right, I see. Well five Galleons says they'll be together _before_ Albus's birthday."

Rose shook her head and held out her hand. "I say after Al's birthday but before Christmas."

Scorpius shook her hand. He looked around the empty corridor and held onto her for a little while longer. Rose's ears turned red as she realised what he was doing. But she didn't let go. For several minutes, either one of them could have let go. But they didn't. They stared out at the stars, holding hands. The intimacy was comforting after such a stressful day of quidditch trials, failing to cheer up Albus and impatiently waiting for the quidditch team announcements.

The sudden appearance of James and Lily as they burst through the fat lady portrait, startled Scorpius and Rose into letting go. And each wondered why on earth they had held on for so long. Scorpius slipped into the shadows and silently made his way back to the Slytherin common room before James and Lily could see him.

"I said no! There is _no way_ that you're dating _him_!" James shouted.

"Oh yeah? And who are you to say who I can and cannot date?!" Lily retorted.

"I'm your brother! I've an obligation to be protective of you!"

"No you don't!"

"Oh, so you can be protective of me and hate every girl I've ever dated, but I can't give a _tiny_ bit of advice when it comes to your first boyfriend?!"

"But it wasn't a _tiny_ bit of advice was it?! _NO_! You shouted at him for even talking to me, ordered me not to date him, screamed at me when I tried to tell you to bugger off and mind your own business, and then dragged me out here!"

Rose cleared her throat.

"Great!" Lily beamed. Rose noticed that even Lily's smile was more radiant and inviting than usual, no wonder guys were falling over her. "Would you _please_ tell James that I can date whoever I want and it's none of his business!"

"No! Rose, can you _please_ tell Lily that she's being unreasonable and she can't date Cecil!"

Rose frowned with confusion. "Which one is Cecil?"

James rolled his eyes and folded his arms. Lily scowled at him and huffed. "Cecil Pond, Lucile Pond's little brother. He's in Lily's year and rarely speaks to her or Hugo. He's one of the popular fourth year kids and he's no good!"

"Oh, shut up James! Just because you like Lucile, doesn't mean that I can't date her brother-"

"Merlin's beard." Rose mumbled and rolled her eyes. "Shut up both of you! James, she can date whoever she wants and it's none of your business unless she gets hurt. Lily, don't date Cecil-"

"But-" Lily tried to argue.

"As a friend, I say don't date Cecil because I heard he tells his friends _everything_ and even makes up a lot of stuff. And as your cousin, I know you well enough that I'm pretty sure that you would never date the brother of the girl that your brother likes. Does that make sense?"

Lily shrugged, she turned to James. "I was about to say no to him, but you interfered and that pissed me off. Look, I know that you like Lucile a great deal and Rose is right, I would never do anything to ruin your chances with her."

"You think I have a chance with her?" James asked sheepishly and Rose held in a chuckle.

"I hope so, she's the only girlfriend that you ever had that I kind of liked."

James hugged Lily. "Thanks Lils." he gently punched Rose in the arm in an affectionate way. "And thanks Rose."

 **END OF SEPTEMBER**

It was the last lesson of the day. Gryffindors had potions with the Slytherins. Rose and Scorpius glared at one another as they entered the room. But both were glad that they wouldn't have to work together this year and they were each keen to prove their talents to the professor, baring in mind the train wreck that was the previous year.

The overpowering smell of rain, new parchment and freshly cut grass wafted into Scorpius's nose as he walked past the simmering caldron on the professor's desk. 'Ew, stupid potion stinks like Weasel.' Scorpius thought and was starting to tell Albus but the professor started the lesson.

"Hey Albus, don't you think this potion stinks like-"

"Now, can anyone tell me what this potions is?"

Rose's hand shot up, Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"Yes Miss Weasley?"

"It's Amortentia sir. The most powerful love potion. The smell is different to each person and smells of what attracts them the most."

Scorpius turned very pale, more so than usual. Albus noticed and gave him a confused look which was ignored.

"Very good. Do you mind giving an example of what you can smell? You don't have to if you don't want-"

"I smell, peppermint and old books," Rose's dreamy smile dropped. Her eyes widened and her voice was just above a whisper. Her heart thumped loudly and quickly in her chest. "An-a-and rain, a muddy pitch after a rainstorm..." Rose's voice trailed off as her ears got redder and redder. She sat up quickly and spoke in a hurried voice. "Do you mind if I go to the toilet sir?"

Before the professor had even finished saying the word 'yes', Rose shot out of the classroom to splash her face with water. She tripped on her bag twice while exiting the door.

Albus looked at Scorpius, who was staring at the door. Albus put on a sly grin and nudged Scorpius. "So what were you going to say?"

"Oh, um, nothing." Scorpius croaked. "What does it smell like to you?"

Albus leaned closer to the potion and smiled. "It smells exactly like what I thought it would."

"And what's that Mr Potter?" the professor spoke loudly as Scorpius and Albus's conversation kept on interrupting him.

"Oh, sorry sir." Albus quickly stepped back next to Scorpius.

"No no, I want to know. I understand that this is a personal experience but you said that it smelt like you thought it would. Care to share with us?"

Albus went bright red. "Oh right, well, to me, to me at least, it um- it um smells like hot chocolate and, um, the seaside and candy floss and well, the smoke from a bonfire."

Scorpius's eyes widened. But he was stopped from asking questions as Albus was repeatedly hitting his head on the desk.

"Why did I do that?" he asked Scorpius who was trying to stop him from hitting his head again.

Scorpius shook his head, he didn't know why. He spent the rest of the class staring at the door, Rose did not come back. Scorpius wondered what could have freaked her out so much that it made her not come back to class. 'Then again,' he thought to himself, 'I'm so confused that I'm not even making notes.'

After class he whispered to Albus, "So you really think Lunette is the one huh?"

"Yeah. I really do."

Rose couldn't think for the rest of the day. She tried doing a history essay but kept on getting distracted by the faint smell of peppermint, old books and rain, a muddy pitch after a rainstorm. They didn't all come at once, but the memory of what she had experienced drifted back and forth. It confused her to no end. And when something confused Rose, it made her irritated. She eventually gave up in the library, said goodnight to Katie Webb and made her way back to the common room. Rose wasn't in the mood for talking to anyone, she couldn't concentrate on what they were saying, so she went to bed early. While getting dressed she stubbed her toe twice and tripped while putting on her pajama bottoms before eventually flopping onto the bed with an open book resting on her chest. Even _The Hobbit_ wasn't enough to keep her from getting distracted.

It was around midnight when Phil noticed that Rose was still not asleep. When she, Anna and Mel had gone to bed, Rose had been staring at the ceiling and didn't talk to them so Phil left her alone. But the fact that Rose hadn't moved started to worry her.

"Rose?" Phil whispered. Rose answered with a groan. Phil crept out of her bed and sat on the end to Rose's. "Rose, what's wrong?"

Rose suddenly sat up straight and whispered back. "What did the Amortentia potion smell like to you?" Rose was deadly serious.

"Oh, um" Phil was taken back by her bluntness. "Well, it smelt like, you know, freshly brewed coffee and coconuts and mangos, that sort of thing. I didn't really have a proper whiff of it. After you ran out of the room all flustered, the professor thought it best to put it away and we had to sit there and make notes about it." Phil shrugged then looked properly at Rose. "Why? Did the smell remind you of anyone?" she leaned in very interestedly as if someone had a new piece of gossip dangling on a fish hook right in front of her.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh never mind, I don't know why I even asked. Look, it's just a bit weird don't you think?"

Phil shrugged again. "Rose I'm a muggle born. My mums are muggles, my brother is a muggle, I checked and my biological dad is a muggle. To me, all of this is weird. But I love it and I try not to get too worked up over stuff like the smell of a potions, no matter what it says about what you're attracted to. Because I know there'll be something new and just as weird come Monday morning."

Rose nodded. "You're right, I need to stop thinking about it, it's just a very small thing in my life. I need to focus on other, more important, things."

Phil smiled and hopped off Rose's bed. "Goodnight."

"Yeah, goodnight."

The next day was very ordinary. Rose and Scorpius woke up, hid their confusion over the previous days potions lesson and tried to act normal. They each had breakfast with their friends and hexed one another as they exited the great hall at the same time. While Scorpius went to quidditch practise, Rose went to visit Hagrid. And after that she went to her quidditch practise, Rose saw Scorpius leaving the changing rooms and sent a hex that made him sneeze constantly. She smugly grinned as she hid behind her fellow teammates.

The only thing that had been different was the distinct lack of Lunette showing up during the day. She often made a point of leaving her Hufflepuff friends for a couple of hours and talking to Scorpius and Rose as they were her best friends.

Lunette was having a pretty bad day. She got up late, like she did every Saturday, and instantly her thoughts went to Albus. This made her feel quite happy until she realised that she couldn't talk to him. On her way to breakfast Lunette saw Albus, he briefly turned around and Lunette went to him to have a chat but her mouth went dry, she squeaked and ran back to the Hufflepuff common room. She looked at the notice board and saw that she didn't have quidditch practise until the following day. So Lunette made a plan to spend the whole day in her room and only sneak out to go to the kitchens if she was hungry. Lunette was a people person and usually quite cheerful, so her roommates noticed that something was up.

After dinner, Lunette successfully snuck into the kitchens. She sat on the very low down table, surrounded by elves that were happy to see her. She just just about to ask for food when someone slid a huge hot chocolate her way. Lunette looked up to see a smiling Albus.

"Hi."

"Hey." Lunette took a sip of the hot chocolate and smiled.

"So, you're not your usual self today?" Albus sat beside her.

Lunette shrugged. "No, I'm pretty much my usual self as always." She took another sip of hot chocolate

to hide her face.

"Lunette, I like to think that I know you pretty well. Just like I know Rose pretty well and she told me that she hasn't seen you at all today. And I think that's unusual. You see, because you are a people person, Lunette, you like to talk to your friends and if you don't have time for all of them on the same day, you shuffle things around and _find_ time to be an amazing friend. Rose isn't a people person, in fact she doesn't like people as a general rule. But she's just a loyal friends as you are, if she doesn't seem to have time for those she loves, she _makes_ time for them. So I think it's pretty unusual that the two of you haven't spoken let alone seen each other today."

Lunette sighed. "I'm just having an off day."

Albus placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, butterflies filled his stomach. "What's wrong."

"I'm just trying to figure everything out. I'm over thinking everything and it's making me miserable."

Albus smiled. "I have an idea, once you finish your hot chocolate, I'll show you something."

Lunette frowned with confusion, but one look at Albus's shining face wiped away all her questions. She downed her drink in one, slightly burning her tongue, and stood.

Albus thanked the elves then turned to Lunette. "I'm going to show you how over thinking everything can be fun!" He took her hand in his and the ran out of the kitchen.

First he took Lunette to watch James and Lorcan setting up a prank. They were placing ten Weasley Wet Weather (tall glass jars with an umbrella-shaped lid that contained an enchantment that created artificial rain) around a statue of a gargoyle. Lunette was confused again and Albus simply grinned.

"Wet Weathers." Albus whispered so that Jame sand Lorcan wouldn't see them. "Behind that statue is a staircase which leads straight to Headmaster Fairweather's office. Tomorrow morning, he'll be drenched from head to toe. They've been planning it for months."

Lunette giggled and Albus pulled her away before James and Lorcan noticed them. Next Albus took her to the Gryffindor common room where, as usual, Lily and Hugo were playing chess and Hugo, as usual, was winning. Then they went to watch Hagrid talking to a few Nifflers who only looked at him curiously. And finally to the library where Katie Webb was studying like crazy with Rose, who occasionally offered her a piece of chocolate or a toffee with a smile.

Albus and Lunette finished by pulling into an empty corridor, he still had a hold of her hand and he dropped it, embarrassed at himself for making Lunette come all this way for nothing. Lunette smiled at him.

"So, how did our little tour teach me that over thinking can be fun?"

"James is meticulous when it comes to planning pranks, but Lorcan is more into the having fun part. Hugo overthinks every move he makes in chess and wins, Lily only plays because she thinks the pieces smashing each other is funny and because Hugo loves playing. Hagrid just sits and talks to animals, he tells them stories of when he was a student and of all the creatures he's owned, and they sit and watch him back. Katie Webb spends all day in the library, overthinking everything she writes and it pays off because she gets good grades, but also because she prefers studying with people rather than being in a social situation. And Rose is often there to lighten up the mood. Lunette, what I'm saying is, it's ok to overthink things every now and then, as long as you have someone to underthink everything and help you enjoy yourself."

Lunette hugged him. "Thanks Albus."

Albus's heart thumped loudly in his chest as he hugged her back. "Any time." He let go of her and tried to hide his very red face. Lunette saw it anyway and tried to hide her giggle. "So, let's get you back to the kitchen, you didn't actually eat anything I noticed."

Lunette shrugged and walked beside him back to the kitchens. Albus resisted the urge to hold her hand.

 **OCTOBER, ROSE'S BIRTHDAY**

Rose could barely sleep that night, she had been too excited. She finally fell asleep around 3am only to randomly wake up 4am. And she couldn't get to sleep again. Rose quietly groaned and made herself get up and dressed. Rose hated mornings, but somehow it being her birthday, the morning didn't seem quite so annoying. She tripped on her way to the bathroom, Anna had left her hairbrush in the middle of the floor and Rose's left hand landed on Mel's hair straighteners which she had left on all night. Holding in a scream, Rose hurried to the sink and ran her hand under cold water for a while. Once her hand was feeling marginally better, she picked up her toothbrush and frantically looked around for toothpaste. It was empty. Anna had used it all again without asking. It was only a small thing but it irritated Rose as she borrowed some of Phil's toothpaste. She then waited for Lily, who was always the one to get her early on the morning of her birthday and drag her downstairs for presents with the cousins.

However, Lily didn't turn up until 6:30am and Rose spent half an hour trying to find her wand in the bottom of her trunk only to realise that she had left it in her school bag and then she found that she couldn't read a book as she had left in the great hall after dinner the day before.

Presents with her cousins was ok and it cheered her up a little bit, but her hand still hurt so Lily and Hugo had to open the gifts for her. Albus wasn't there because some Slytherin prefects wouldn't allow James to get him and Lunette had to explain that Dominique couldn't come because she had not finished an essay due in later on in the day.

During breakfast Rose spilt most of tea tea down her robes as a singing birthday card from Molly (Percy's eldest daughter) startled her. And nothing had arrived from her parents. Rose had always thought it impossible for her wonderful parents to ever forget her birthday, and yet here she was, without so much as a note.

Rose was late turning up to Herbology as she had to get changed. The first lesson of her day was spent in the cold greenhouses, as the rain hammered the students could barely hear a word professor Longbottom was saying. They were dealing with Snargaluff pods.

Long, prickly, bramble-like vines flew out of the top and whipped through the air. Lunette wasn't helping much as she was, like always, thinking about Albus. And Mel was freaking out, she had no idea what to do and wouldn't stop apologising to Rose about the hair straighteners. So Rose was left to deal with the Snargaluff on her own. She managed to catch a few vines in her right hand and knotted them together, a hole opened in the middle of all the tentacle-like branches; Rose then plunged her left arm bravely into this hole, which closed like a trap around her elbow. Professor Longbottom suddenly noticed Rose's struggle, he did not realise that her hand was in double pain thanks to the burn from earlier that morning, he tugged at the vines, forcing the hole to open again and Rose snatched her arm free, clutching in her fingers a pod.

Rose was panting and exhausted after that lesson but she had to continue on to the her next class which was potions. She barely had a chance to speak to Albus or Phil before the professor ushered them all in and she was forced to sit beside Scorpius and be irritated at him for no reason and had to listen to Mae Blinston laughing behind her while the professor droned on about Golpalott's Third Law. Only at lunch time, when Rose had a chance to get to bathrooms did she realise why Blinston had been laughing. Rose was having a bad hair day adding to her already bad day. It was twice as fluffy as usual but it also stuck out at unusual angles. There were also random leaves and a few clumps of mud at the ends from when she had wrestled with the Snargaluff.

Her eyes also had massive indicators at the lack of sleep and her brows were fixed with a permanent frown. Rose felt like crying or screaming or punching a wall or all three. But Rose stared into the mirror and told herself to carry on and try and turn the day around.

However, she was not successful. She had double Care of Magical creatures which was held outside, where slipped and fell in the mud. The class was also cancelled halfway through as it began to rain again, most of her fellow classmates made it inside just in time, however Rose got drenched. She missed dinner as she was trying to get dry. And her hair was only flat for a little while before it puffed out to double the size than it usually was again, when Phil had finished with the hair dryer, there was a reason Rose never used them and had tried to stop Phil from 'helping'. Despite the rain, some small clumps of mud still refused to wash out.

After everyone came back from dinner, Rose realised that she had a couple of essays that she wanted to finish. Rose would have done them in her room but Anna was loudly gossiping with Mel. And she would have gone to the common room but James and Lorcan were loudly boasting about some prank they had played on Headmaster Fairweather. She eventually had to swallow her pride and go to the library. Rose tried putting her hat on, it was already quite big to be able to fit over her hair, but as today seemed to hate her, even the hat wouldn't fit. On her way to the library, Rose happened to pass Mae Blinston who shoved a paper bag at her while laughing.

"Nobody wants to see you ugly face Weasel, I thought the bag would help but there's no way it'll fit over your trashy hair."

Rose growled, set the paper bag on fire and stormed off telling herself that Blinston was not worth the come back. But she did have to wonder why Mel was randomly carrying around a brown paper bag. Rose also saw Scorpius, she wasn't going to start a fight but braced herself incase he hexed her. But to her surprise, Scorpius took one look at her, his expression one of concern, and walked straight past.

'Is my hair really so bad that even Malfoy pitys me?' Rose thought bitterly to herself.

She finally slumped down at a table in the library and pulled out her books. First she noticed that Katie Webb was nowhere to be seen, this was very rare, but sometimes Katie did spend an afternoon relaxing in the Ravenclaw common room. Next Rose looked down at her books, a jar of ink had spilled in her bag and everything was covered.

Realising that Rose was having a bad day and not wanting to miss it, Mae Blintson, Holly Buchan and a few of their other friends followed her into the library. Once again laughing their heads off at Rose's appearance and then again at the disaster that was her text books.

"That's what you get for being a stuck up, big headed Weasel." Buchan laughed.

"Hey guys, we should help the poor, bushy, ridiculous thing." Blinston said, a twisted smile curling at her lips. " _Aguamenti!_ " Blinston pointed her wand at Rose.

Rose rolled her eyes and just took it. There was no way of stopping it. A weak jet of water trickled out of Blinston's wand, Rose chuckled at the pathetic attempt. The chuckle only made Blinston angrier and the much stronger jet of water shot out all over the desk which Rose was sat at. It had done the job, soaked all of Rose's books and her robes were once again wet through. But there was no way of stopping it, literally. Blinston couldn't work out how to stop the charm and it began to soak everyone and a lot of books.

Madam Prince screamed and hurried everyone out. She put an end to Blinston's mistakes and glared. Rose tried to slip out along with the rest, but the librarian stopped her.

"THAT'S IT! I WILL SEE TO IT THAT YOU BOTH HAVE TO CLEAN ALL OF THIS UP! EVEN IF IT TAKES ALL NIGHT!"

Rose could have screamed as well. Somehow she had managed to get detention on her birthday despite not doing anything wrong. She looked towards the door and saw that Scorpius had been stood watching the whole thing. Rose scowled at him. It was _his_ friend who had done this to her and yet he said nothing. Not that Rose really expected him to, it was just irritating that he was still friends with Blinston.

Professor Nye came in and tried to teach Mae and Rose how to use the hot air charm successfully enough not to burn the books. Rose picked it up straight away but Mae only made things worse. So Mae and Rose were put on the duty of stacking the books without magic, after Nye and the librarian dried them.

It was around midnight when Nye looked at his watch.

"It's the middle of the night! Madam Prince," he spoke softly to the librarian. "I know we're not finished here yet, but these students have got classes in the morning. Why don't we let them go with the agreement that they come back tomorrow after dinner to clean up the rest, luckily they only soaked this quarter of the library rather than the entire room."

Madam Prince didn't like this, but she saw the logic and allowed them to go. As soon as they were out of the door, Mae began shouting again.

"This is all _your_ fault Weasel!"

" _My_ fault?!" Rose was trying to hold back her anger and frustration built up over the day which was kind of the only thing she was successful at for the entire day. Yes she was shouting, but Rose wanted to shout louder and hex and/or punch Mae. " _You_ were the one who actually made the mess! I just happened to be your target! Stop blaming everyone else for your mistakes and idiotic behaviour, you stuck up half wit!"

"None of this would have happened if it weren't for your stupid face!"

"My stupid face?! Is that the best you've got?!" _Now_ Rose was ready to hex Blinston into the oblivion, but she slowly loosened her grasp on her wand and began to shout. "You know what Blinston, I've had a crappy day and your existence has made it worse, but your bitching, bullying and inability to accept your own failings has officially made today a living _nightmare_. And you know what? I'm angry, I'm irritated and I want to hurt you so badly that you'll be stuck in the hospital wing for a month, because that might just _cheer_ me up. But I'm not going to, because you're not worth my time or energy!"

"How _dare_ you speak to me?!"

Rose grit her teeth, clenched her fists and marched off towards the Gryffindor common room. As she turned away from Blinston however, she could have sworn that she saw Scorpius again.

She told herself that she didn't have time to think about Scorpius, Rose had yet to complete her essays. She ended up only getting four hours sleep as she was sat up doing them in bed.

It was late by the time either of them go to their common rooms. Mae was angry and went on a usual rant about how stupid and ugly Rose was. Most students had gone to bed, But Albus and Scorpius were still up. They were used to Mae's whiny bitching about Rose, but some reason Scorpius snapped.

"And I mean, she's such a pig-headed know-it-all. She's nothing but the ugly spawn of a mudblood and a muggle lover. And she thinks that she's better than everybody! Ha! That soulless bitch would never get a guy in a hundred years-"

Scorpius stood and raked through his hair in frustration, and shouted at Mae, most of the students left in the common room quickly left knowing what Scorpius could do when he was annoyed, that had seen it on Rose daily.

"Shut up Mae! I've had it with your bitching! Weasley isn't _that_ bad! Yeah, she's smarter than most and yeah her hair is different, but is that really interesting enough for you to complain about _every_ night?! Look, I don't like her, she's irritating and competitive and we always fight. But I'd rather spend a day with her than listen to you drone on about Weasley for another second. Yeah she's my enemy, but you are quite possibly the worst person on earth. Surely even a selfish half wit like yourself could see that she was having possible the worst day of her life! No one deserves the sort of crap you say about her. You need to get over yourself, grow up and see what an amazing person Rose Weasley is!"

Scorpius took back his seat opposite Albus and sat with a thump. Mae pretended to cry but Scorpius didn't care so she huffed and stormed up to her room, the group of friends following her. Albus stared open mouthed with shock. Scorpius took a deep breath and finally looked up at Albus.

"Did I just say-?"

"Yep."

"Merlin." Scorpius's eyes were as wide as Albus's.

"Yep."

They were silent for a while.

"Did you mean it?" Albus asked skeptically.

"Would you believe me if I said no?"

"No."

Scorpius shrugged and sighed. "Then there's your answer." he nodded and picked up his book, but paused. "This stays between us right?"

Albus pointed behind Scorpius "Yeah, just between us and the other students still milling around."

Scorpius turned to see a couple of students from his year, fifth years and seventh years. But he only shrugged. "Even if they do spread it around, Weasley would never believe I said that. _I_ don't even believe that I said that. But she trusts you so don't say a word."

Albus smiled. "Secret is safe with me Scorp. And um, thanks for defending my family like that. I can't believe my aunt Hermione still gets called a- a- a, you know." He was referring to the insult of mudblood.

"It's disgusting, I know. You would have thought that the war lost by those who believed in 'pure-blood' would have put an end to it all."

"I knew Blinston was a horrible person, but I didn't that she was like this."

"Neither did I." Scorpius smacked his head with his book. "I mean, of course she's like this. Her parents were some of the people that believed in you-know-who's ideals but never became death eaters for fear of the ministry. So they never got caught. And I was so stupid as to think she was different and I actually thought of her as a friend."

"You can't change people Scorp, and you're not that stupid-"

"I am. I knew, deep down I knew that she was cruel and manipulating but I ignored it for some reason."

"Because you believe in people. You don't want to be known for your family and their allegiance during the wars, you want a second chance to clear the name of Malfoy. You were trying to do the same for Blinston. But not everyone is as kind as you."

 **TWO DAYS LATER**

Rose's weekend was only marginally better than her disaster of a birthday had been. She woke up late, was annoyed at herself for wasting half the day when she could have been doing homework. Phil tried to convince her that it was good thing that she slept in as she had had barely any sleep the night before. Luckily her hand was feeling better and she received a letter from her parents explaining how the family owl had to be used for an emergency at Hermione's work and so was unavailable to deliver presents. But they promised to send them the following day and that they were going to visit next weekend while the students went to Hogsmeade.

Rose smiled. She couldn't wait to see her parents. For the first time in a while, Rose felt like she really needed a hug from her mum and dad. She just hoped that they wouldn't feel too bad about the present mix up, she really didn't care too much, it was enough to know that they loved her enough to remember. She had no idea how precious she was to Hermione and Ron.

Rose then tried to do some homework in the library but Madam Prince shouted at her and banned her for the week. So she had to do her homework in the hall. Lunette and Lily sat on either side of her as countless guys came and flirted with them while Rose was simply ignored in the middle. It wasn't that she wanted them to flirt with her, she was just annoyed at not existing. Rose figured that as long as she was hanging out with Lily and Lunette, their beauty would inadvertently and make her feel invisible.

After a couple of hours, Rose was fed up and muttered some lame excuse before going to the the common room and distracting herself with a book. The feeling of being intimidated by both of them was getting irritating.

On her way, Rose saw Scorpius walking very quickly away from Mae Blinston who was shouting while fake crying after him.

"Scorpius, you ignoring me is getting very old very quickly! Come on! We're friends!" Blinston stopped fake crying when she saw Rose, her expression was pure hatred. "What do you want Weasel? You've already ruined everything!" And she stormed off in the opposite direction of Scorpius.

Rose thought she heard a noise from around the corner and followed it. There she found Scorpius was hiding behind a tapestry, sighing with relief.

"Thanks Weasley." He gave a cocky grin when he saw her. "Who knew that you could be useful?"

"Excuse me?" Rose growled but tried to keep her calm.

"It's a compliment, you're a good Blinston repeller."

Rose huffed and rolled her eyes. "Glad I could be of help." She mumbled. Rose spin around to head to the common room as planned, but not without sending a leg locking jinx at Scorpius.

When she got to the common room, Rose was feeling almost depressed. She hurried to her room and stared at the mirror. She hated the way she looked. She hated her hair, she hated her freckles and she thought she looked fat. Rose didn't normally worry about these things, she was usually one to care about what's on the inside or care about how smart she could get. Rose felt self conscious and self loathing surged through her. She spent the rest of the day in her room reading, wishing to look like any other girl and comparing herself to them.

She knew of a few spells and potions that would make her feel prettier, Rose decided against it. 'If I change my appearance, people will know that I care. And I don't want to care. If I wear something like makeup people will know that I'm self conscious and I'm too proud to let them know that.' Rose thought to herself. She knew that wearing makeup didn't mean that you were insecure, most women wore it because they just wanted to and enjoyed putting it on, but Rose wasn't like that and her family all knew it. They would instantly know that something was wrong.

Rose realised that burying herself in books in her room probably wasn't helping either. But she didn't have any motivation to do anything.

Only after dinner did Rose convince herself to move. She sneaked out of the common room and made her way to the kitchen. There she ran into Scorpius who was sitting at the long table, happily chatting away to a couple of house elves. Rose was about to turn around and leave but one house elf spoke very loudly and offered her a cup of tea in a very excited voice

"Oh, thanks." Rose said with a smile and say down awkwardly in the seat offers to her opposite Scorpius.

"Weasley." He acknowledged.

"Malfoy." Rose grit her teeth. "So it's not enough for you to enslave one house elf? You have to bother the ones that work at Hogwarts too?" She thought about the Malfoy's house elf Petit.

"Look Weasley, I know some of these house elves. Petit talks about them a lot. And you _know_ that I intend to free her one day."

Rose shrugged. "Empty promises to your poor slave, it's cruel really."

"I care about Petit!" Scorpius was getting angry but kept his voice down in front of the house elves. "She's part of our family and I treat her as such. She's not my slave and I can't wait until I move out and free her."

Rose thanked a house elf who gave her a mug of tea before turning back to Scorpius. "I know you _intend_ to free her, but whether or not you actually have the guts to do so is another thing entirely. Your family's sign of wealth is barbaric. And we both know that's it's not just our _intentions_ that make us who we are, it's the _actions too_. Actions speak louder than words as the muggles say."

"Are you always this-" Scorpius started to ask before Rose interrupted.

"Pretty, charming, awesome, smart?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes and forced himself not to smile. "I was going to say big headed."

Rose gently patted down her fluffy orange mass of hair, only for it to spring back again. "I have been told that I am that aswell."

This time Scorpius had to turn his head to hide his smile at her cheekiness and sudden change in tone. 'Why is Weasley making me smile and laugh? We're enemies.' "You know, I still haven't got you back for that leg locking curse from earlier."

Rose shrugged then looked at her watch. "Well I guess that's going to have to wait because in five minutes I'm going to be on prefect duty." A house elf gave her a handful of biscuits, she thanked them then left.

As she exited, Wesley McLaggen spotted her.

"There you are! Rose, we're meant to be doing rounds together and you weren't at dinner and your cousin was pissing me off. She may be hot but she worries about you _way_ too much."

Rose took a deep breath and told herself not to hex him for being so obnoxious. "Stop talking." she growled.

Wesley scoffed and shrugged. "Why?"

"Because she's trying very hard to keep calm and not hex you." Scorpius spoke from behind them as he left the kitchens.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Yes, _thank you_ Malfoy, but I think I can talk to idiots without your help." she said sarcastically

Wesley looked confused for a brief moment, his head snapped back and forth looking at both of them until a small cocky smirk spread across his face. "You sound like an old married couple." He folded his arms and raised his eyebrows. "So how come I keep on finding you two together but not arguing or hexing each other?"

"Because you're a genius who found out about our secret meetings." Scorpius said sarcastically in a very dry and monotone voice.

Rose rolled her eyes again and punched them both in the arm.

"Ow!"

"Ow!"

"Look Malfoy, Wesley doesn't _get_ sarcasm and will probably find it hilarious to tell his little friends all about our supposed 'little meetings'-"

"I actually said secret meetings-" Scorpius immediately wished he hadn't answered because sent him a look that could kill.

"Shut up! Wesley is a cocky, big headed pathetic show off-"

"I'm still here you know." Wesley said timidly but was ignored.

"-who already thinks we're having some sort of secret relationship. Luckily most people know he's an idiot and don't believe him, but if you keep on saying sarcastic and unhelpful things to him, he will keep on telling his equally pathetic friends and it will be harder and harder for people to ignore them."

"Glad I could be of help Weasley." Scorpius smirked and strutted away.

Rose looked at Wesley who was grinning ear to ear like a gleeful child who had just been told a big secret and wanted to blurt it out to everyone. Wesley hadn't listened or understood a word of what Rose had said, he only believed that Rose and Scorpius were having secret meetings. She rolled her eyes, realising what Scorpius had done. She contemplated running after him, but as Scorpius turned the corner, he popped his head back to speak to her again.

"That, by the way, was-"

"Pay back for the leg locking, I know." Rose growled.

Scorpius grinned. "Have fun on your patrol."

Wesley spent the rest of the patrol asking Rose if she and Scorpius were actually going out.

Rose spent the rest of the patrol thinking of all the hexes she could use on him the following day.

 **NOVEMBER**

The first Hogsmeade weekend finally came and Rose and Hugo made their way to their uncle's shop together. Roxanne met them there as her dad, George, was visiting with Hermione and Ron.

"Mum! Dad!" Hugo cheerfully greeted his parents with a hug as soon as he saw them.

"Hey freckles! How's it going?" Ron ruffled his son's hair after a hug.

"Great. Except that guys keep on flirting with Lily, somedays I can't get a full conversation with her because some guy interrupts."

"It'll be alright, Lily is a sensible girl, I bet she's been turning guys down left and right."

"Oh yeah," Hugo smiled. "She's gotten more sarcastic and sassier with each guy she turns down."

Hermione grinned. "My guess is that she's been spending too much time listening to our Rosie." She then turned and hugged Rose. "I'm sorry about your birthday. But we're here now and we brought gifts. And this _will not_ be a regular thing."

"Absolutely not." Ron nodded. "You should've heard the telling off your mother gave to the poor wizard who accidently used our personal owl for important ministry business."

"Oh Ronald, it wasn't that bad!" Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Harry said that he cried!" Ron grinned like an excited child.

"Yes, well, I didn't know he was going to do that."

"Anyway, how was your birthday, Rosie?" Ron hugged his daughter.

Rose thought back to what was possibly the worst day of her life, the only good thing that had happened was that she saw most of her cousins together and they gave her thoughtful or funny gifts. The rest of the day sucked. But Rose put on a smile and nodded.

"Well, you know, it was fun." Rose lied.

"Right! Presents!" Hermione announced as she and Ron stepped aside to reveal a small pile of neatly stacked and wrapped gifts.

Albus joined them after a couple of minutes, James popped his head in briefly to say hi, but he had a date so it was literally a second or two. Lily and Louis stayed and chatted with Hermione.

Rose looked out the window briefly and was surprised to see Katie Webb was walking past. She even more shocked to see her with none other than Scorpius, they had become friends. Ron peered over Rose's shoulder and saw Scorpius.

"Is that Malfoy still bothering you?" He said in a quiet but angry tone.

Rose rolled her eyes and turned to her dad. "I think it's more that we bother each other. Dad, I may not like him but the constant arguing isn't all his fault. I hate to say, but it's just as much my fault as his."

"That doesn't change the fact that he attacks my daughter on a daily basis."

"You know what dad, Malfoy's parents could probably say the same thing about me."

"Just as long as you're not hurt."

Rose smiled. "I'm fine dad." When Ron was turned away, Rose open the window and subtly sent a hex that would turn his hair red. She ducked down before Scorpius noticed her.

 **ALBUS'S BIRTHDAY**

Rose waited outside of the Hufflepuff common room very early in the morning after insisting that Dom go back and get Lunette for the family gathering in the Gryffindor common room for Albus's birthday. James had been sent to the Slytherin common room to get Albus himself. Scorpius was not invited but that didn't mean that he might not turn up, something with worried the whole family. But Lunette had to be there, Albus would definitely want her there and so did the rest of the cousins.

When James eventually snuck into Albus's room, Scorpius pretended to be asleep. He knew that Albus would want him at the gift giving thing that his family did, but Scorpius wasn't up for it. He couldn't deal with scowls this early in the morning.

"Rose, I'm not sure." Lunette was practically dragged out of her bed by Dom because Rose had been so pushy. "I mean, Albus hasn't been himself recently and it's all my fault-"

"Neither of you have been yourselves recently. You are overthinking what should have been obvious to you now and he is overthinking what your possible answer is, which, again, should be obvious to him." The made their way towards the Gryffindor tower.

"But-"

"I know, neither of you want to screw up your friendship. But doesn't that tell you your answer?"

Lunette sighed. "I don't know Rose. I love him, I really do. But I don't know if it's in the same way that he loves me."

Rose stopped walking half way up the stairs and turned to Lunette, she waved at Dom and Louis to keep on going to the Gryffindor tower and she would meet them in a bit. "Lunette, today is Albus's birthday. Why don't you be normal around him today? Be his friend. Be like you two used to be. That might help your decision, and it will certainly make his day."

Lunette nodded. "I can do that."

Albus had a great birthday. Lunette was his friend again and she managed to convince Rose and Scorpius to sit together with them at breakfast and not fight. He got great presents from all of his family. Something that cheered him immensely was at lunch, when he was chatting with Lunette and they both spotted Anna, Rose's roommate, coming towards them with a heart shaped card. Lunette intervened and got Albus away from Anna as quickly as possible. He saw the protective jealousy flash in her eyes which gave him hope that one day Lunette could be more than a friend. As Rose and Scorpius had care of magical creatures lesson after lunch, he was left alone with Lunette, hiding from Anna in a deserted classroom.

"I'm so glad we're friends Albus, I know I've been acting odd recently but-"

Albus shook his head. "Don't. Let's not talk about it and just focus on being friends. It's nice to see you being you again."

Lunette grinned. "I'm so glad we moved to England, I finally know what it's like to have real friends."

Albus looked concerned. "Why? What were your friends like in France?"

Lunette sighed and shrugged. "Well, they were a stuck up bunch of girls who only had their heads stuck in the clouds full of boys. I'm convinced that they only became my friends because I'm one quarter veela, guys would hang around me and ask me out. These girls thought that if they hung around me too, more guys would ask them out."

"That sucks."

"Yeah, but you know what's worse? They were my friends with the condition that I don't use my metamorphmagus powers around them."

To her surprise, Albus suddenly hugged her.

"Um, Albus, what-?"

"You should _never_ have to hide who you are Lunette. You are smart, strong and talented. And being a metamorphmagus is awesome."

Lunette sniffed and forced herself not to cry on Albus's birthday. His kindness was overwhelming. "Albus, please get off me."

Albus turned bright red and let go of her instantly. "I'm so sorry, we were having fun and I just ruined it-"

"No Albus, I just don't want to cry and your hug made me emotional."

Albus nodded, still feeling guilty. "Then, I'll do a Rose thing." He stretched out his arm and patted Lunette twice on the shoulder. "There there."

Lunette laughed. That's how Rose found them. She followed the sound of Lunette's laughter.

"Hey Al! How's your birthday been?" She asked her cousin.

Albus looked at Lunette and smiled. "Great, just perfect."

Rose had to hold in a chuckle at his soppiness.

"Well, Mr Birthday boy, how would you like to come up to the Gryffindor common room?" Rose said with a cheeky smile. "You too Lunette."

Albus was confused. "What? Why?"

"Well, because it's not every year that a wizard turns seventeen. You've come of age and James may have planned something a little bit special."

Albus was now alarmed. "James planned something? No! I'm not walking into another prank by my annoying brother-!"

Rose laughed. "Calm down, I helped as well."

"That's not comforting, in fact, that makes me even more worried. The last time you and James collaborated on something, you blew up Uncle Percy's shed!"

Rose's eyes widened. "You know that it was us?!"

Lunette was confused this time. "I'm sorry, what did you do to your uncle's shed?!"

"It doesn't matter." Rose said quickly.

Albus laughed. "She and James were planning some prank involving a portable swamp and fireworks."

"How old were they?" Lunette was surprised never to have heard about this before.

"Old enough." Rose retorted.

"James was ten, Rose and I were nine. Uncle Percy never found out because I covered for them. Blamed it on some old muggle toaster he had laying around in the shed. We never did find out exactly what Rose and James were planning."

Rose glared at Albus. "That's because it doesn't matter."

"You know Uncle George knew it was you two all along."

Rose grinned cheekily again. "I know, he was the one who gave us the idea."

Lunette laughed while Albus looked worried again. "Ok, but seriously, if it's something you and James organised, I don't want to go up to you common room."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Would it help if I said that Dom, Louis and Hugo also organised it?"

Albus nodded and calmed down slightly. "Bearing in mind that they are quite possibly the nicest Weasleys ever to roam this earth, apart from Fred, then yes, yes it would help."

Rose shrugged and dragged them both along to the Gryffindor common room. James opened his arms wide as Albus entered. There was a table full of Albus's favourite things. Form cola and hot chocolate to pumpkin pasties. Scorpius was lurking quietly in a corner after being invited last minute when James and Rose finally allowed Hugo to get him. There was music playing and people milling around chatting or dancing together.

Albus grinned. "This is great guys." He and Lunette headed straight for the drinks table, grabbing a cola and a hot chocolate before greeting Scorpius.

As the party went on, Albus began to notice the small things. The list of the quidditch team with his brother and two of his cousin's names on them. He saw Hugo beating those who dared challenge him in chess, Dom and Roxanne were hanging out with their friends. Grant was trying again to hit on Lunette while Scorpius made fun of him. Odd Weasley products were lying about the room reminding him of his successful uncle George. Lily and Rose were wearing their Weasley jumpers made by their grandma, reminding him his wonderful grandparents who were equally proud of all their children and grandchildren.

Albus looked at Lunette who had turned to talk quidditch with Scorpius. He suddenly felt light headed and slightly angry. Albus slipped out of the Gryffindor common room to breath and to think. He went to the closest window in the corridor and opened it wide. He then sat on the floor, leaning against the banister staring out at the stars.

Rose had noticed that something was up with Albus and followed him out. As soon as she heard his melancholy sigh, she approached. "What's wrong Al?" Rose tentatively sat next to him on the floor.

He sighed heavily again and refused to look at her. "Do you ever feel like a complete," Albus shrugged. "I don't know, like a complete outcast?"

"What do you mean?" Rose's voice wobbled slightly in worry.

Albus snorted and rolled his eyes. "Of course _you_ don't understand. You're little miss perfect like you're mum, no one could ever be disappointed of you."

"Al, look at me." Rose wrapped an arm around him. "No one is disappointed in you, we could never be."

"Rose, you don't get it, do you? You've just been made the Gryffindor keeper." Albus rested his forehead in his palms. "You're a keeper, James is a chaser and quidditch captain. My mum was a famous player for the Holyhead Harpies, my Dad was the youngest seeker in the century, he also saved the entire wizard world twice before he was even in his twenties. Victoire, Dom and Lucy have all been head girls. Hugo, Fred and Louis have always been uncommonly kind to everyone and Roxanne and Lily have always been popular.

"And then there's me. The odd one out. I'm the first Slytherin, I'm terrible at quidditch and my best friend is a Malfoy. Yeah, everyone seems ok with it and I know you all still love me no matter what, but I'm the one who is too different. I'm just, I don't know, like a footnote in a big book of famous wizard families. If there were such a thing, I bet there would be a whole page on our family, excluding me."

He put on a posh low voice to make his point. "' _Oh yes, the Weasley's are a beloved pure-blood family, known for their good hearts and constant presence in the Gryffindor house at Hogwarts. They are closely connected to the Potters who are most famous for The Boy Who Lived, excellent quidditch skills shown throughout the generations and, much like the Weasley's, their presence in Gryffindor. Both families are rivals of another pure-blood family, the Malfoys.'_ and then in a tiny little footnote at the end _, 'the only omission to all of this is Albus Potter who did nothing exceptional at his time at Hogwarts, was in Slytherin house and befriended a Malfoy'_. Ok, so 'outcast' was the wrong word to use. But don't you see Rose? I'm nothing but an anomaly, I don't fit in with my own family."

Rose didn't know how to reply. He was right, she had no idea how he felt. She had always fit in from the red hair to being Gryffindor quidditch player. She even fit in with her mother's side as she was extremely smart.

"Well, I guess I know a tiny bit." Rose said uncertainly. "I mean, I was friends with Malfoy once and my dad hated that."

"Yeah, but you eventually did what any normal Weasley or Potter would do, hate him."

"Ok then, you're different to the rest of us. But at least you know that we all love you and you should know that everything you just said, no one even cares about. And you know what else?"

"What?" Albus grumbled.

"It's good that you're different to the rest of us. We're all living under the shadow of who our parents were at the Battle at Hogwarts. The name Potter will always follow you and your dad did unintentionally leave a rather large shadow, but you're the exception to the rule. You make your own rules and expectations to live up to."

Albus was quiet for a while and Rose wondered if she had said the right thing or just made everything worse.

"Al," she added quietly. "Forget what others think, we all have to make our own way."

"You're too smart for your own good Rose." Albus muttered, Rose could almost hear the reluctant smile in his voice. "How do you always know what to say? You always have a way of making me feel better."

Rose scoffed. "We're cousins and best friends. There's very little I don't know about you." Rose patted his shoulder gently. "You're gonna feel like this again Albus, these feelings of not belonging don't just go away forever after just one clever pep talk from your favourite cousin."

Albus smiled at her shameless and cocky self compliments.

"At least I know who to go to next time I feel like this." Albus finally looked at Rose, he could see that she truly did understand. "Have you ever felt like you don't belong? I mean, you're practically a 50/50 mix of your parents."

Rose brushed him off with an evasive and hollow laugh. "I think I'm just paranoid about the future and what it holds for me. I'm the girl who is super smart and organised and is meant to have everything sorted out- but I guess I'll just have to work stuff out as I go along, just like everybody else."

"Adulthood sucks doesn't it?"

"Yep. It already sucks and we're only at the beginning." Rose nodded. She heard the fat lady portal open and shut, she spun her head around to see Scorpius. Rose gave him a small nod of acknowledgment which was returned and they switched places. Rose went back to the party and Scorpius spent a couple of minutes cheering Albus up to rejoin the party.

"Is-Albus-ok?" Lunette rushed out in one long breath as soon as Rose re-entered the common room. She startled Rose with her sincere concern.

"Umm, yeah, he'll be ok. He just feels a little out of place again. And now that he's seventeen and legally an adult, he's scared."

Lunette sighed with relief and nodded. She took Rose by the arm and dragged her to a quiet corner. "Rose," she spoke very quietly and softly. "I think I've decided how I feel about Albus and I want to talk to him tomorrow about it."

Rose grinned and Lunette rolled her eyes.

"You can't grin yet!" Lunette tried to hide a smile. "You don't know what I'm going to tell him."

Rose only raised her eyebrows. "I'm pretty sure I know. In fact, I'm pretty sure that anybody in this room could guess what you're going to say tomorrow. The only person that is clueless is Al."

Lunette let out a shaky sigh. "I'm really nervous."

Rose placed a hand on her shoulder. "So is he. Draw your strength from him." She tried to move on as she had seen Ben Rome on his own on the other side of the room but Lunette caught her arm again.

They both spotted Albus and Scorpius come back in and head their way. Lunette spoke quickly.

"What does that mean? Draw my strength?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "You practically light up every time Al is with you, you make each other stronger. Use that to your advantage."

"That still doesn't make any-" But Lunette couldn't finish her sentence as Rose had already gone and Albus and Scorpius had joined her.

 **THE NEXT DAY**

Rose was in a cheerful mood knowing that her favourite cousin and her best friend would finally admit their feelings for one another and be together by the end of the day. Scorpius noticed her good mood and suspected it had something to doo with some hex she was going to use on him later. So as he saw her exiting her history of magic class, Scorpius sent a tripping jinx at her. Rose, of course, knew it was him and sent a bat bogey hex back with a small smile. It had been a while since they had had a proper fight.

"You git Malfoy!" She shouted at him and the corridor was pretty much cleared as students didn't want to be caught.

"Oh yeah?!" Scorpius was struggling from the flow of bats and his hex to turn Rose's hair blue missed her by inches and hit her bag instead. "Well at least I'm not some stuck up nerd!"

"Ha! But you are!" Rose sent another, stronger bat bogey hex at him which lasted longer. "Areshole!" and she stormed off to find Lunette, except that Scorpius's tripping jinx had not worn off yet.

"Twat!" Scorpius shouted back between the streams of bats exploding from his nose. He went off in search of Albus, hoping that the bats would wear off soon.

Lunette spent the whole day biting her fingernails and bouncing her legs like a nervous twitch. As she walked around the castle with Rose, every time she and Scorpius shouted insults at one another, it made Lunette jump, whereas normally she was used to it.

"Lunette, are you ok?" Rose asked softly in Herbology.

"I'm fine, I'm just determined to go through with this. I am not backing down again."

"Again?"

"Oh, umm, I wanted to tell him on the train, but then he came to see me and a chickened out and convinced myself that I was wrong."

Rose smiled. "I'm glad you've found the courage to do this, it will make you both happy."

"Tosser." Scorpius muttered to Rose as he passed her in the corridor.

"Knob head." she retorted.

After they had gone a couple of steps away from each other, Scorpius sent a hex at Roe, giving her the tail of a fox. A soon a she felt the hex hit her, Rose spun around and sent a jinx at him which made leeks sprout from his ears. They stopped walking, turned and face each other with a scowl before moving on again.

"Umm, Lunette, I've just got to get rid of a little problem." she pointed to the tail which made Lunette laugh.

After dinner, Rose saw Lunette get up from the Hufflepuff table and start following Albus out of the hall. The only problem was, Scorpius was there too. Rose quickly stood and followed them too, with the intention to keep Scorpius busy for around half an hour.

Once in the corridor, she turned Scorpius's hair blue. He didn't notice until Albus started laughing at him.

"Weasley!" Scorpius spun around and sent various hexes at her.

While Rose dodged them, she nodded at Lunette who understood, she dragged Albus too an empty classroom.

Rose sent a hex at Scorpius which stuck his arms to his body so he couldn't lift his wand. Rose then made a tapestry to fall on top of Scorpius. It was quite a heavy tapestry so the few students remaining to watch their fight quickly fled. Rose double checked that the surrounding corridors were empty before helping Scorpius and putting the tapestry back.

He raised his wand ready to hex her again but Rose stopped him with a disarming spell.

"Truce? We need to hear see something." Before Scorpius could answer, Rose dragged him by the ear to where Lunette and Albus had disappeared to. "Just wait a little while, you owe my two Galleons." They listened in.

"Umm, so last year, you um-"

"Lunette, I'm sorry , I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I mean, I love being your friend and I shouldn't have ruined it by asking you out."

"Albus, would you ever ask me again?"

"What?"

"Well, would you ask me again? I mean, if you still feel the same way would you ask me again?"

Albus was confused but tried to cover it up. "You know, I never actually asked you to go out with me. You wouldn't let me remember?"

Lunette smiled and nodded. "Do you still feel the same way?"

Albus paused, not because he was uncertain of how he felt, but because he didn't want things to become weird again between them. He swallowed his fear and answered honestly. "Yes."

Lunette held his hand. "Would you ask me what you were going to ask me last year?"

"Will you go out with me?"

Lunette took a deep breath ad squeezed his hand. "Albus, this is my answer: we're way too young to really know what romantic love is. But I know that I love you as a friend, I have since we met. I really like you Albus and I've been thinking about you _a lot_. And I've come to realise that I like you way _way_ more than a friend. I miss you when you're not around, I think about you all the time. I'd love to go out with you and I'm determined to make this work between us. Because Albus, you're something special and you deserve everything I can give you. Which, I'm sorry to say, isn't much, but I will try everyday to make you as happy as you make me"

Albus grinned from ear to ear. "I only want to do the same for you." He paused for a moment. "So this is a yes?"

Lunette giggled "yes."

"So can I kiss you?"

"You may."

Scorpius had been wrestled to the ground by Rose, who he realised was in an especially determined mood to keep him from moving on with his day. When he saw Albus and Lunette exit from an empty classroom, giggling and holding hands, he finally understood. Scorpius disarmed Rose and rolled his eyes.

"You know Weasel, you could've just told me that Al needed time alone with Lunette."

Rose shrugged and smirked. "Where's the fun in talking to you when I can knock you to the ground?"

 **DECEMBER**

Scorpius sat on his own, slightly away from the rest of the Slytherin students, on the table at breakfast. Rose sat with Hugo, James and Phil. All of them looked miserable.

Lily had started going with some fourth year who used to be friends with Hugo. Lorcan had started dating Mabel, who was an ex girlfriend of James's, he didn't care that it was an ex, James didn't care about any of his exes except for Lucile, but Lorcan wasn't good at juggling having a girlfriend and spending time with his friends. Mel had completely stopped hanging out with Phil outside of their room and was always with Anna and Robin because they all had crushes on Wesely McLaggen and Grant Hathaway. And, of course, Lunette and Albus had started dating. Not much had changed between them, they still acted like best friends, except for all the hand holding, the snogging that people would uncomfortably walk into and the fact that they rarely spent time with Scorpius or Rose.

That December seemed to be the month of couples who left their friends behind. Scorpius found himself spending a lot more time in the library than usual and therefore became better friends with Katie Webb. Since Scorpius was in the library and stealing her study friend, Rose found herself spending a lot more time with her brother and James.

Rose and Scorpius also found themselves arguing at least two or three times a day. Which was huge compared to the start of the year when they only fought once or twice per week.

"Umm, hi." a small voice spoke from behind Scorpius. He quickly spun around to see Katie Webb.

"Hey Katie."

"Hi, umm I was wondering if you're going to the library after breakfast?" Katie was clinging on to her books as she spoke. Rose turned and saw Scorpius and Katie talking, it annoyed her.

"Oh, sorry, I've got a quidditch practise to go to. But I'll probably see you later on tonight."

"Ok, that's fine. What are you doing this weekend? I know it's a Hogsmeade weekend, but I normally-"

"Actually Katie, I'm going to try and convince Albus to spend time with his friends." Scorpius sadly looked over to the happy couple on the Hufflepuff table. "He's my best friend and I only ever see him when he's just about to go to bed or in class, and even then he only talks about Lunette. Which is fine, but, you know."

"You're glad that he's happy but you want your friend back?"

Scorpius nodded. "Does that sound selfish?"

"No, it sounds very loyal."

"Thanks Katie, I'll see you later."

"Yeah, later." Katie tried to wave but her arms were full of books so she just walked away.

"Really? The friendless Ravenclaw? Wow, and I thought hanging out with Potter and Weasley was low enough. At least you had to good sense to drop Weasel." Llod Parkinson slide next to Scorpius.

Scorpius ignored the urge to punch him. "What do you want Parkinson?"

"Nothing, it just seems like you're lonely. I mean, you have to be lonely to be talking to that thing."

"Did you just call Katie 'that thing'?!"

Lloyd rolled his eyes and groaned. "Ugh, you get so offended with anything I say! You're so touchy about everything. Who cares what I called her, they're just words." Lloyd then stood on the table to draw attention to himself and started laughing at Scorpius. "Just a heads up to everyone, Scorpius Malfoy is such a precious little delicate flower that you can't say any words vaguely rude around him."

Nobody was laughing. Lloyd was well known for attention grabbing and pathetic insults, and denying that they are insults.

Scorpius stood up. He grabbed the back of Lloyd's robes and pulled him off the table. Everyone, except Rose, went back to breakfast. "Detention Parkinson. And that's ten points from Slytherin."

"You can't do that! I'm a prefect you twat." Parkinson shrugged Scorpius off and kicked him in the shin then stormed out of the hall.

Scorpius angrily followed him. And behind him was an equally angry Rose.

"That's another detention for you Parkinsons, you don't kick people. Especially prefects. Did your parents teach you nothing?" Rose intervened.

"I don't need your help Weasley." Scorpius rolled his eyes.

Rose scoffed. "Oh course you need help, but at the moment there's no one else that cares."

"Oh, and you're saying that you care?" Scorpius said smugly and folded his arms.

Rose rolled her eyes. "I care more about a single piece of new parchment then I do about you."

"Lloyd! Get back here!" Scorpius shouted as soon as he realised that Parkinson was using their argument to sneak away.

"Parkinson! I'm taking you to one of the professors to organise your detentions now."

Lloyd stopped and groaned. He kicked the wall. "This is so stupid, all I said were words that pissed of Malfoy because he's so pathetic."

Rose shrugged, she really didn't care. She then led the way to Lupin's office, Scorpius tailing behind her and Lloyd to make sure he actually went.

"Words matter Parkinson, ' _Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words can also hurt me'_." Scorpius said in a matter of fact tone.

"' _Stones and sticks break only skin, while words are ghosts that haunt me'_." Rose quoted back to him.

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "Your both fucking insane." he mumbled.

"' _We're all mad here'_." Scorpius quoted _Alice in Wonderland,_ one of Rose's favourite childhood books. He smiled at Rose as she turned around when she recognised the quote.

Once they had handed Lloyd over to professor Lupin, Scorpius and Rose happened to be walking in the

same direction. To avoid fighting for absolutely no reason, neither spoke for a while.

"So, um that poem," Rose decided that it was too awkward. "How do you know it? Muggle studies?"

Scorpius shrugged. "Not really, my mum occasionally made me read muggle literature during the summer holidays. At first I think it was just to spite my grandparents, but then I actually enjoyed it. Crap, why am I telling you this? This is weird, it's a normal conversation-"

Rose smiled. "Yeah and you're ruining it by talking about it."

"How do you know it then?"

"My grandma thought it was good to know little quotes like ' _Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can also hurt me'_. Of course, being the stubborn child that I was-"

"Like you are."

Rose scowled but carried on. "I looked up the whole poem."

"' _Stones and sticks break only skin, while words are ghosts that haunt me'_. Remember the rest Weasley?" Scorpius tested her.

"' _Slant and curved the word-swords fall, it pierces and sticks inside me. Bats and bricks may ache through bones, but words can mortify me'_." Rose answered cockily, she raised her eyebrow to test Scorpius in turn.

"' _Pain from words had left its' scar, on mind and hear that's tender. Cuts and bruises have not healed, it's words that I remember'_."

They smiled at one another, feeling a small part of the friendship that they had years ago.

"Ugh, you're even nerdy when you flirt." Mae Blinston had turned up to ruin everything. "You're so pathetic Weasel, like Scorpius would ever be actually interested in muggle stuff. It's boring, stupid and prem-val."

Scorpius rolled his eyes and pushed past Blinston. He had had enough of her and he knew that Rose would have enough witty comebacks to drive Blinston away.

"Muggle literature is an intricate and genius tapestry of history and culture." Rose stubbornly pushed her point on Mae. "Your views on muggle literature is the only thing that is primeval, yes I believe _primeval_ is the word you were looking for, or maybe not since you're too stupid to even know what it means. Maybe if you opened your mind just a tiny bit, you would have a better vocabulary or a better view on the world outside ours or even have one original point of view. Or is the very notion of having a thought conjured up in that thick skull of yours plastered with anti-spot potion, just too scary?"

Blinston blinked. She had no comeback. She didn't even understand half of what Rose had just said.

"You're just- you- you're just the pathetic leftovers of muggle lovers and mudbloods. I _know_ that I'm better than you!" Blinston shouted.

Rose rolled her eyes and begged herself not to care. "Keep your mouth shut Blinston." she groaned. "Everytime you speak I feel my brain cells committing suicide one by one.

Mae stepped forward to slap Rose. Luckily Rose hopped out of the way just in time. Even angrier, Mae stormed off to the Slytherin common room.

"Fifteen points from Slytherin!" Scorpius shouted at Blinston. He was glad that he had hid around the corner to hear Rose's comeback. But he was embarrassed that he had ever been Blinston's friend after hearing what she had said. "Are, um, are you alright Weasley?" Scorpius asked cautiously seeing Rose stare angrily at the ground.

She looked up at him and glared. "Yeah, I'm fine for an ugly daughter of a muggle lovers and mud- mud-." She started off sounding angry but gave up when repeating the awful insult. "Piss off Malfoy." Rose growled when she saw the hesitant pity in his eyes. She sent a bat bogey hex at him and stormed off to her room to read her history of magic text book.

 **CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS**

As Rose and Hugo made their way down to Hogsmeade to catch the train to London, she looked over and saw Lunette and Albus being cute. Normally Scorpius would be trudging behind them but he was nowhere to be seen. Rose made her way over to the couple and pushed her way between them, breaking apart their linked arms.

"Hey guys, are you coming to visit like last year Lunette?"

"Yes!" Lunette exclaimed happily.

"Great, just one other question though, will I be able to hang out with you guys or will you be all sickly sweet, staring into each other's eyes and pretending like the rest of the world around you doesn't exist?"

"Oh, sorry Rose. I guess we have been ignoring you and Scorpius." Albus shrugged.

"Yeah, where is Malfoy anyway? I thought he normally just hangs around behind you guys looking bored." Rose finally got to the subject she actually wanted to talk about.

Guilt struck Albus and Lunette. They never noticed Scorpius. The fact that their two best friends might be a bit lonely, never occurred to them.

"Oh, well, I think he said something about staying at Hogwarts for Christmas." Albus shrugged,

"What, does the little rich boy think his house isn't big enough so he has to stay here?" Rose smirked

"Um, no actually." Albus really had to think hard about what Scorpius had told him. "He was meant to go home but something happened last minute and he decided to stay at Hogwarts."

Rose frowned. She actually found herself worrying about him.

"Hey Rose!" James called from behind. He had caught up with Hugo.

Rose joined her brother and cousin. "Lorcan still hanging around with Mabel?"

James nodded. "I don't think he's noticed that I'm not around."

Rose searched the crowd of students all making their way to the station and spotted Lorcan behind them. He didn't look too happy. "I don't think you've not noticed how he's feeling."

"What?"

"Is he happy with Mabel? I mean, in your last year relationships are hard. You're either stuck with that person for a long time, like them or not. Or you instantly separate."

"Well, when we do talk, I steer away from talking about Mabel."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "So he could be miserable or not know what to do and he has no one to talk to about it."

James huffed and rolled his eyes. "Ok Rose, you've made your point. Sheesh, stop being so smart and right. So Hugo, how are you holding up with your abandonment?"

Hugo shrugged. "It just sucks when I realised that my cousin is my only friend in my year."

Rose sighed. She knew exactly how that felt. "Do we have to stage some sort of intervention for them over Christmas? Get Lorcan, Albus and Lily in a room and make them listen to us."

"No, too awkward." Hugo said quickly

Rose nodded. "I thought I might be."

"Is Lunette visiting over Christmas?" James asked.

"Yeah, she is." Rose realised that they were almost at the station.

"Oh joy, we get to see more of the happy couples." James rolled his eyes.

Rose hit his arm. "James!" She harshly whispered. "They're waiting for us on the platform." She looked up and waved at Lunette and Albus.

"We like Lunette alright, so best behaviour." Hugo whispered. "Both of you."

Christmas day and Boxing day were fun, Rose and Hugo finally got their cousins and best friends back due to the lack of boyfriend or girlfriend. Everything went back to normal, and after dinner Rose got what she really wanted, a quick ride on her broom around an old tree in the back garden of the Burrow while Albus sat on a branch talking to her.

However, two days after Boxing day, Rose received a letter from Albus saying that Lunette and her father were staying at the Burrow for a couple of days and that she and him were welcome to stay as well. As it was the holidays, most of the family spent the day at the Burrow and just went home around midnight, if they hadn't had too much to drink or had already fallen asleep. Rose loved Lunette, she and Albus were her best friends, but they barely spoke to her while they were together.

"Lunette!" Rose called for her friend before walking into the living room where Lunette and Albus were just sitting, holding hands and smiling at each other. All the soppiness made Rose feel a bit sick. "Me and James are trying to get a quidditch game started against the parents, want to join in and be our seeker?"

Lunette wasn't listening. Rose threw a pillow at her.

"Oh! Hey Rose." Lunette grinned. "What can we do for you?"

Calling herself 'we' implying that she and Albus were one and the same person made Rose irritated. But she decided to let it go, she just wanted to play quidditch and beat her dad.

"Wanna play a quick game of quidditch?"

"Maybe tomorrow." Lunette brushed her off. "I want to spend some time with Albus. Christmas is such a romantic time of year."

Rose rolled her eyes and sulked out of the living room. "We're short one player. The lovers want to stare at each other some more." She groaned to James, who just rolled his eyes as well in return.

"I hate couples that ignore they're friends because all of a sudden they're happier without you." James said loudly as he swooped passed the house on his broom to meet Rose on the ground.

He happened to pass the living room window. Lunette and Albus heard.

"They should be happy for us! They're our best friends and we're finally together." Albus said bitterly, but deep down he knew that his brother was right.

"I think they are happy for us, but we've been bad friends, just ignoring Rose and Scorpius like we have is horrible."

"I guess you're right, it's not like they can just hang around together. And they're both too stubborn to make new friends."

"Exactly. You know what, let's just talk to Rose when we next see her."

However Rose didn't turn up to Burrow the next day, Hugo said that she was still asleep when they left and the day after that she wasn't at the Burrow again, Hugo said that she was visiting Phil.

It was the morning of New Year's eve, when Albus and Lunette decided to go straight to Rose's parents as Hugo only shrugged this time when they asked if Rose was coming.

"Hey, uncle Ron, do you know where Rose has run off to? We can't find her and Hugo was no help."

"Yeah, Hermione wrote to Headmaster Fairweather yesterday, Rosie went back to school early This morning. She has a history essay that she hasn't finished yet and apparently she left all her notes in her room at Hogwarts."

Lunette frowned. "That doesn't sound like Rose."

"Well, I didn't think it did either, but she was quite determined to go back early." Ron shrugged. "Just a couple less days with my favourite daughter."

"Is- isn't she your only daughter?" Lunette said uncertainly.

Ron grinned and patted Albus on the back. "I think you fit in with your girlfriend perfectly Al, you're a lucky guy." He then strutted off to play chess with Hugo.

Lunette smiled softly at Albus. "I love your family Albus."

"And I'm pretty sure that they love you." he took her hand in his own. He was about to say, 'they'll be your family one day too.' but decided against it. Lunette didn't keep boyfriends around for longer than a week or two usually, and he wasn't going to ruin their just over a month long relationship over one poorly timed comment about the future.

"So, should we write to Rose? She didn't exactly say goodbye to us." Lunette suggested after Albus was quiet for a while.

 **NEW YEAR'S EVE, HOGWARTS**

Rose had kind of been telling the truth, she hadn't finished a history essay, but of course she didn't leave her notes at Hogwarts. Something about hearing that Scorpius was spending Christmas alone at Hogwarts made Rose compelled to go back and see him. This was a feeling she didn't like at all, but at the very least she was able to finish an essay in the quiet of the library where she kept an eye on him, rather than having to listen to Hugo and Lily talking or James, Roxanne and Molly begging her to play quidditch with them as Ron, Harry, Ginny and George kept on winning.

As none of her friends had come back early or stayed over Christmas, Rose found herself reading _The Outsiders_ by S.E. Hinton, at the almost empty Gryffindor table at dinner. It was one of her favourite books, she had read it multiple times. She was suddenly aware that someone had plonked themselves beside her, she looked up to see Scorpius. They scowled at one another.

"What do you want?"

"Why are you here?"

The both asked grumpily at the same time. Speaking at the same time was something that had always been common between them.

"What are you doing here Weasley? You have a nice family and, as I recall, a pretty good Christmas."

Rose gave him a look of pure defiance. There was no way that she was telling him that she felt a bit worried about him. "I think I could say the same thing to you Malfoy. You've got family, a big house and a shit tonne of money. Christmas really can't be that bad. Why are you here?"

"I'll tell you if you tell me." Scorpius raised one eyebrow.

Rose scoffed. "No chance in hell." She turned back to her book but Scorpius snatched it out of her hand. "Oi!"

Scorpius held it just out of her reach, being almost half a foot taller, this was easy for him. "Hmmm, _The Outsiders_? Never heard of it." He opened it the the first page and read outloud. "' _When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home._ ' This sounds stupid Weasley."

Scorpius had not been watching her. Rose had climbed onto the edge of the table and jumped towards him. He wasn't prepared for that, which is what Rose was counting on. She swiped the book away from him as she jumped. She flashed a triumphant grin at him and went back to eating dinner alone. Yet her victory was short lived.

Scorpius snatched the book again.

"Twat! Give it back!"

"I don't get why you like it."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Hinton wrote it when she herself was seventeen. It's direct and honest. It's not some typical teen book where the characters break away from their parents, it's about how teenagers see themselves and each other. She wrote it because she was outraged about the way some in society and condemned to live on the margins and how mindless violence can spark by inequality, codes of loyalty and feelings of alienation."

Scorpius thought over what she said. "That was very well put." He said suspiciously.

"It's not a widely known book these days amongst our generation. It's not the first time I've had to explain it." Rose was still grumpy.

Scorpius. "Well I'm going to borrow it." And he marched out of the hall.

"Hey! Malfoy you git! Give it back!" Rose charged after him. She sent a tripping jinx at him, but before she sould get the the book, Scorpius tucked it inside a pocket in his robes. Rose wasn't about to wrestle him in the middle of the corridor.

"Why are you doing this?" she huffed.

"I'm bored. And you won't tell me why you're here but Al and Hugo aren't."

"Well you're not telling me why you're here."

"It's none of your business."

"Same goes for you."

They were silent for a while.

"So can I borrow the book?"

"No. Tell me why _you're_ here." Rose rolled her eyes

"No. Tell _me_ why you're here."

"No."

Scorpius shrugged. "I'm stealing the book then." and he sprinted off towards the Slytherin common room.

Rose couldn't be bothered to run after him. She trudged back to her empty room to find a different book to read.

At 11:45pm, when the few remaining Gryffindors were partying for the new year in just fifteen minutes, Rose snuck up to the astrology tower. She decided to spend her new year watching the stars. She set an alarm on her watch so that it would beep at the new year.

She snuck past professor Stockett, who was patrolling the corridors, by setting off a tiny and harmless firework on the floor below the stairs leading to the astrology tower. Rose hide in a cupboard while Stockett marched to investigate the banging sound. She smiled proudly to herself at the success of her plan and silently slipped out of the cupboard and made her way to the tower unnoticed.

The stars were nothing compared to how bright the moon was. Rose watched in a trance as the ripples of the lake reflected the moonlight. She could see Hagrid's hut in the distance but it didn't look like the lights were on. She guess that he was asleep, Hagrid was quite old these days. Rose heard footsteps behind her, she spun on the spot quickly and to her surprise, she saw Scorpius.

"What do you want?" Rose groaned. Still annoyed that he had stolen her book.

Scorpius shrugged "Just wanted to see the stars."

"And you can't see them from your room?" Rose rolled her eyes.

"No actually." Scorpius wasn't phased that she was pissed off with him. He leant on the balcony and looked over at the lake. "And what are you doing here Weasel? Are there no second years you have to shout pointless school rules at?"

Rose grit her teeth. "Yeah, and I guess you're here because nobody noticed or even cared that you're quieter than usual." Rose mentally kicked herself. That was a stupid thing to say.

"Ooh, great comeback." Scorpius mocked. "Come on Weasel, you can do better than that. You've pissed me off enough over the past few years that you should have something better to come up with. Or is this it? You've finally run out of smart comebacks? The boring Weasel has finally shown herself up."

"You know what?! I don't have to take this from you. I'd rather be anywhere else for New Year's than stuck up on this tower with you!" Rose huffed and tried to storm off.

Rose tripped on her own foot as she spun around, bringing Scorpius down with her. She landed on his lap. Rose smelt the familiar scent of peppermint, she began to wonder if it was his shampoo or soap that made him smell so strongly. Scorpius looked into her eyes with uncertainty.

"You're too clumsy for your own good." he whispered.

"I know." she whispered back.

"Why are you whispering?"

Rose smiled mischievously and raised an eyebrow. "Why are _you_ whispering?"

Scorpius shrugged and continued it a voice just above a whisper, moving his head closer to hers all the while. "It seemed appropriate. This is a close and fragile moment."

Rose gulped and moved her head to meet his. Scorpius placed a hand gently cupping her cheek. Rose moved her hands to his shoulders. They leaned in, they both knew that the kiss was coming but felt powerless to stop it. They had kissed before, Scorpius remembered, he wanted to know if it would be any different this time.

Suddenly Rose's watch started beeping. It woke them up from some sort of trance.

"Ah!" they both exclaimed as the realised what would have happened.

Rose pushed herself off of Scorpius and quickly crawled backwards away from him until she was leaning on the freezing cold wall opposite. The large, wide, open space of the tower lay between them.

"What was that?" Scorpius eventually spoke.

"Oh, umm, my watch." Rose shrugged. "It's midnight. Happy new year Malfoy."

"Happy new year Weasley." He stared at her lips.

Rose looked up at the stars again, a faint smile growing.

"People are meant to kiss and New Year's aren't they?"

Rose's ears turned red. "Umm, yeah? I spend new year with my family, so my aunts and uncles and my parents kiss each other. And a couple of years ago Molly brought around her boyfriend, Merlin Jordan. But that's about it." Rose frowned and mumbled to herself. "I actually haven't seen Merlin in a long time, I wonder what happened there."

Scorpius nodded. No one did anything in his family, it was more of a muggle tradition that he had learnt about in class. And as far as Molly and Merlin went, he didn't know much. Molly was the only one of Rose's family, not including Albus and Hugo, that kept in contact wit him. She wrote to him every now and then to check on how he was doing. But not even Al knew about her letters. Molly was such a friendly and open person that when she and Scorpius became friends, she didn't care what happened between him and Rose. Scorpius stood and made his way to the edge on the balcony, looking up at the stars too. It wasn't long before Rose joined him.

"Why do people kiss on new year?" he asked

Rose shrugged. "Some, silly, cheesy reason like failing to kiss someone ensures a year of loneliness."

Scorpius shrugged. "Well, my two best friends are dating each other and are very bad at managing their time with friends, so I'm going to be lonely anyway."

Rose nodded. "Same. I may have Phil but she's been on the prowl for a boyfriend since Mel left us."

Scorpius looked down at Rose, the familiar smell of freshly cut grass muddled his thoughts. Before he knew what he was doing, Scorpius gently brushed a piece of hair behind Rose's ear. She searched his eyes before slowly wrapping her arms around his neck.

"We probably shouldn't." Scorpius leaned closer to her again.

"Probably, my watch going off was a sign, I guess." Rose pulled herself onto tiptoes to get closer to him.

"Yeah, I guess..." Scorpius sighed with barely a whisper. His heart raced as wrapped her arms tighter around his neck.

"If anybody saw us..." Rose muttered, not wanting to think about it herself.

She looked away from his eyes for a brief second, the moonlight bouncing off of his pale blond hair just made Scorpius stand out brighter to her. There was a blue tinge to the moonlight, reminding her the bluebell flames she made and put in jars. Scorpius always liked those.

"They wouldn't believe it."

Scorpius had one hand around her waist and the other tangled in her cut grass smelling hair. They had been friends once and had known each other well, but being this close to Rose again made Scorpius realised how many freckles she had and he noticed how kissable her lips were. How kissable they always were. He was just never close enough to have such an uncontrollable temptation.

Scorpius was content to stay in her arms for a while, he enjoyed to lead up to a kiss. Rose on the other hand was impatient. She popped onto her full tiptoes and, to his surprise, gently brushed her lips with his own. Rose's heart thumped loudly alongside Scorpius's and a warmth spread between them. The kiss deepened as they pressed themselves together.

Rose suddenly jumped away from Scorpius again as he released her from his hold when they heard the faint sound of a door slamming somewhere deep in the castle. It snapped them back to reality. And reality sucks.

Scorpius thought Rose might run away, but she gave a shaky sigh before leaning her forearms on the balcony and stared at the stars again. He leaned his head to see her expression. Rose was confused and worried, she was biting her lip. She had no idea what to say. Scorpius copied her position on the balcony and stared at the lake in the distance.

"We shouldn't have done that, should we?" Scorpius sighed.

"No. No we shouldn't have. And because we didn't mean to, it doesn't mean anything." Rose sounded angrier than she actually was.

"Thanks Weasley, but I'd like to think that a kiss from me means a little more than nothing." Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"But it didn't mean anything! We were just caught in the moment. I mean, otherwise I would _never_ kiss _you_. Actually you kissed me so I _didn't_ kiss you and it means nothing. Why would you kiss me?! You're such a-" Rose's ears were getting red again.

Scorpius thought she looked stunning in the starlight and kissed her again cutting off her rambling.

She looked angry again but Scorpius only grinned. "Just caught in the moment." Rose rolled her eyes and looked back at the stars. "And you _did_ kiss me first. I thought I'd return the favour."

She scowled at him. "Kissing Malfoy the twat. Great way to start my year." she said bitterly. She was secretly pleased, Scorpius was a great kisser and he always made her heart flutter whenever he got so close.

Scorpius smiled and rolled his eyes. He was not regretting their kiss at all. In fact, he was tempted to do it again but knew that he really shouldn't. Scorpius reached into his robes and handed Rose her copy of _The Outsiders._

"I couldn't put it down." He shrugged but his heart did a flip flop when he saw her grin.

"Really?! It's great isn't it."

Scorpius took hold of Rose's hand, he looked her in the eye and squeezed her hand gently. "R- Weasley, umm,"

"Yeah?"

Scorpius sighed. "Happy new year. ' _Stay gold,_ ' Weasley, ' _stay gold_ '." he half quoted the book. We wished he hadn't, because tears threatened to spill.

Rose smiled softly. "Are you crying?"

"No." Scorpius said defiantly, still holding her hand.

Rose grabbed his other hand as well. "I always cry at that bit too."

Scorpius nodded. "Yes but, I literally only finished reading it about an hour ago. Damn it Weasley, why did you make me cry?!"

Rose chucked. "Hey, you were the one who stole my book."

"Yeah, I won't be doing that again."

"Good. But I would recommend reading _The Book Thief_ and _East_."

Scorpius looked at her suspiciously. "Are these more books that will make me cry?"

Rose shrugged. " _The Book Thief_ might."

He nodded then sighed. "I'll see you later Weasley." He squeezed her hands once more before slowly letting go and leaving.

Rose stood watching him leave, he stopped and looked back.

"It really meant nothing?" Scorpius didn't know what answer he wanted. But he knew what answer he would get.

"It can't mean anything."

"I thought so."

"Happy New Year."

"Yeah, Happy New Year."

 **NEW YEAR'S DAY, AFTER DINNER**

Rose visited Hagrid for an hour or so before coming back to the castle. As she made her way up the main staircase, she caught a glimpse of pale blond hair.

"Malfoy?" She called out. Rose got her wand ready, expecting him to send a hex at any second. But it never came. She turned the corner and just saw him leaning against the wall smirking at her.

"Paranoid much, Weasley?" Scorpius asked when he saw Rose's wand out.

"What do you want?" Rose was annoyed to see him. She had managed to avoid him all day, but somehow he tracked her down.

Scorpius shrugged. "I've got nothing to do. And Al isn't here. Not that that would make a difference anyway these days."

Rose rolled her eyes and peeped into the nearest classroom. It was empty so she dragged him inside.

"We're not becoming friends Malfoy." she said sternly.

"I never said I wanted to be."

"Good, I just want to get it into your thick skull. Just because our best friends are dating and ignoring us to the point that we're lonely, does not mean that we have to be friends."

"Good." Scorpius shrugged. "But do you want to be friends today?"

"No."

"Good. Just testing you." Scorpius sighed, Rose knew he was lying. "What if we're able to keep it from the teachers and all the students left? We don't even have to be friends. We just call a truce and happen to be hanging out alone at the same place at the same time."

"Malfoy-" Rose rolled her eyes.

"Seriously, I need _someone_ to talk to."

"You barely talk anyway!"

"Yeah, but I've been completely alone for over two weeks now."

Rose looked at her watch. It was 8pm. "Alright, we can be friends in this room for the next two or three hours. No one can ever know about it."

Scorpius grinned. "Great because I'm bored."

"Malfoy, I don't understand why you want me to be your friend."

Scorpius thought, 'Because when we kissed last night it awakened some feeling in me for you that I didn't know was there. I haven't stopped thinking about you and smiling all day. This feeling is scary and I don't know what it is. I can't talk to Albus about it, you're his cousin and if I talk to Lunette about it she'll jump to conclusions and tell you. Neither of them seem to be talking to me anyway these days. I just need you to be here next to him, talking to me to keep me sane.' But instead he said out loud. "I'm bored, and after yesterday I don't think hexing for fun would seem appropriate."

"We're not doing more of yesterday, if that's what you're thinking!" Rose jumped closer to the door.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "No, just friends for a couple of hours."

"Good, because I _don't_ want you kissing me again."

"You kissed me!"

"Well you kissed back! And you _certainly_ didn't stop it!"

"Can you blame me?! Have you met you? Or seen yourself in the mirror, like _ever_?"

Rose's turned bright red. She didn't know what to say. But she didn't believe him for one second, she wasn't exactly pretty like Lunette or Lily or Dom or Victoire. Rose prided herself on personality, wit and brains. Certainly never beauty. In fact, if it wasn't for her bushy red hair, Rose would look quite plain and not stand out from the crowd.

Scorpius cleared his throat. "Let's just forget yesterday for now and be friends for the day without anyone finding out."

"Fair enough." Rose said quickly, wanting to move to topic on. She dumped her heavy coat on the nearest chair and popped out of the room.

Scorpius frowned with confusion. He poked his head out of the door. Rose pushed his head back inside.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Rose whispered harshly.

"Me? What are you doing? I thought we agreed to get along, then you just ditch me!"

Rose scoffed. "Wow, you are really are lonely. I'm just going to the kitchens to get teapot. Stay here and don't follow me."

"Fine." Scorpius slumped into the chair beside her coat and folded his arms. "But I like my tea with a little bit of milk-"

"-and two sugars." Rose rolled her eyes. "I know. Now can I leave?" she asked with a sarcastic tone. "Or do you need someone to hold your hand?"

"Just go." Scorpius huffed, trying his best not to think about Rose holding his hand.

Rose quickly dashed out of the room, but it was too late, Scorpius had seen her wide smile. He smiled back at the closed door. They spent the rest of the evening acting like children again. Scorpius got it to snow in the classroom and they had a snowball fight. Once they were too cold, he stopped snowing and Rose created little bluebell flames in their empty mugs. They talked about magical creatures and wizards chess and quizzed each other on the rules of quidditch.

"So why did you come back early? I thought Christmas was great with your family."

Rose shrugged. "It's fun, but I had a few essays to finish and I wanted silence."

Scorpius raised his eyebrows.

"Ok," Rose rolled her eyes knowing that he knew she wasn't telling the whole truth. "Lunette was staying for a couple of days and I would've found that great, if she didn't spend the entire time ignoring me. I couldn't drag her away from Al long enough to even ask her to play quidditch with me and James. It's been over a month now, surely they're past the 'honeymoon' period or whatever?!" She neglected to tell Scorpius that she was worried about him spending so much time alone. At least she had cousins who were pretty much close friends.

Scorpius nodded. "I would've thought so. But they're both such happy people that I guess they never have any problems."

"I wonder what that feels like."

Scorpius laughed. "Same."

"So why are you here?"

"A lot of reasons." he shrugged and grabbed biscuit from the slowly disappearing pile that Rose had brought back hours ago.

"Care to share any of those reasons?"

"Well, my mum wrote to me saying that my aunt Daphne was coming to visit, I don't know her that well but she seems alright. Anyway, aunt Daphne is still quite close with one of her old school mates, Pansy, who happens to be Lloyd Parkinson's mother. So they're staying at our house for most of the holidays."

"Crap, that must suck. I see why you stayed."

Scorpius nodded slowly. "My family just assumed that I'm friends with him because we've known each other all our lives. They don't realise what an aresehole he is. And what's worse is that Mae Blinston's father happens to be my aunt Daphne's boss so the entire Blinston family were scheduled to come for dinner on New Year's eve and stay the night."

"So rich kids have problems too." Rose shrugged.

"Yeah, we're forced to hang around with other rich kids who are stuck up twats who don't care about anyone but themselves."

"Yep, you're all stuck up twats."

"Hey! We're meant to get along remember?"

Rose looked at her watch, it was 1am. "Shit. We're waaaay past curfew."

"But it's New Year's day."

"Doesn't matter, we should both be in bed right now."

Scorpius shuffled closer to her. "Ooh, should we? I thought you hated me Weasley, but whose bed, yours or mine?"

Rose slapped his arm and pushed him away. "I'm serious, I'm going to _my_ bed. You should go to bed too, but leave a couple of minutes after me just in case we run into other prefects."

Scorpius smiled as he watched her go. He had never wanted, but was unable to, hate Rose Weasley more in his life. The fact that the feeling wasn't making him angry confused Scorpius a great deal. But he was content to sit and smile watch her leave.

 **JANUARY**

The day after New Year, Albus Lily and James returned back to school because Ginny and Harry couldn't take any more time off from their busy jobs. Rose waited by the entrance hall to greet them, Scorpius was grinning and listening to Albus talking, he had obviously met them at the station.

"Rose! Hi." Lilly grinned and greeted Rose. "Guess what, I've decided to break up with Justin."

"That's the guy you've been going out with right?" Rose raised an eyebrow, she never actually learnt his name.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yes, anyway, doesn't matter that don't know his name. It's actually probably better. He's such a prick."

"What makes you think that?"

"He visited just after you left and kind of admitted to only going out with me because he thinks I'm suddenly hot."

Rose nodded. "Now you know how Lunette feels."

James nodded and said hi before running off to the common room. Lorcan and Lysander were coming back to that school later on in the day too.

"Hey Al." Rose waved.

Albus quickly shuffled towards Rose and whispered. "Any idea why Scorpius won't stop smiling?"

"Maybe he missed you and realised that money can't buy you everything." Rose replied dryly, thinking inwardly that if she saw Scorpius's smiling little face one more time, she would punch him. The fact that Scorpius winked at her just as Albus turned away didn't help her irritation either.

Albus laughed and went back to Scorpius, who was more smiling at Rose than at anything else. She just brushed it off with an eyeroll.

"So, are you breaking up with him today?" Rose asked Lily as they stepped through the portal behind the fat lady,

"Yep today, apparently he came back yesterday because he was annoyed at his mum."

"What did she do?"

"Asked him to clean his room."

Rose burst out laughing. She looked across the room and saw James shouting and laughing in their direction. Lily and Rose frowned then spun around. They saw Lorcan shouting and laughing too behind them. Lorcan pushed between them and ran to James. They hugged and laughed together in the middle of the room.

Rose grinned. "True bromance."

"Why can't all relationships be like theirs?"

Rose smiled and shrugged. "Because not all people blow up stuff so much that they have to stick together just to get one average brain between them. Separately they are half wits and together they're just witty."

"Barmy, is what I'd call them. My brother has a screw loose. But I guess Lorcan is alright, he can be really sweet sometimes. He can be, when he wants, a calming influence on James."

"James can be nice too." Rose stuck up for her cousin.

"Yeah, but he's brother so I don't see that very often. Me and Al are often the targets of humiliation at home."

A few hours later, Lily began her breaking up with Justin. James got awkward and left to sit in his room, Rose was going to leave until she heard Lily shouting. She found it entertaining and stayed to watch proudly.

"What do you mean why? It's obvious isn't it?! You're a complete and utter arseole! I'm just ashamed it took me so long to notice! You are one of the worst people I've ever met! And I swear, if you ever try to talk to me again I'll gather all my cousins and siblings, and we'll all hex you until you can't move! AND DON'T YOU _DARE_ TALK TO HUGO ABOUT THIS! He takes _my_ side because he's _my_ cousin and _my_ best friend. Do not bother him with the question of picking between a friend and a cousin! Because he will always pick me!"

Suddenly Lorcan appeared beside Rose, he was grinning proudly too.

"She can be really loud can't she?"

Rose laughed. "Yep, that's my girl. Chatty and loud, and beautiful,"

Lorcan nodded. "She's also very protective. Of James especially and you."

"We all grew up together. We're practically siblings and our best friends in the world are our cousins."

Lorcan nodded. "I know. You know what, I've always admired your family, you stick together no matter what. And you stick up for each other, not that you need to. You're all such strong independent and capable people."

Rose smiled. "It's a big family, the weak don't last long."

"Lily is far from weak. Sometimes being a stereotypical girl like she can be, loud chatty and beautiful, means that girls like that get treated in a sexist and stereotypical way. But not Lily, she wouldn't stand for it. She has ambition and pride." he continued in a quieter voice. "You know what Rose? I think I could fall in love with her. I really could. I know she's three years younger and she's James's little sister. But just a couple of years doesn't matter when you're an adult and if Lily could fall for me too, she would stand up to James. But that's only if." Lorcan sighed. "I trust you Rose, that's the only reason I felt like I could blurt this embarrassing crap to you. Plus, we're both so young now, her especially, I know that you know that I would never do anything about this hypothetical feeling."

Rose smiled. "So you really think you could fall for her?"

"Absolutely. That's why I've decided that I need to keep my distance, falling for someone three years younger, while you're at school, it seems a lot."

Rose nodded. "It does, but like you said, when you're an adult three years is nothing. Well I like you Lorcan, and I trust you too. I think you and Lily would be great together. But James would kill you."

"I know. That's why I'm hoping that, if I ever do fall for her, she'd fall for me too."

"This is all hypothetical?"

"At the moment yes. Like I said, we're both way to young to know anything or do anything about it. I just look at her and I feel a protectiveness more than a brother and more than a friend. And when I do actually speak to her, my mind goes to the future. Way in the future, when we're both out of Hogwarts." Lorcan shrugged. "I'm in my last year of Hogwarts Rose, I'm thinking about my future. I guess I'll have to wait and see if I actually do fall for Lily Luna Potter."

"I guess." Rose shrugged and smiled.

She didn't often talk to Lorcan, they were both too busy. But they had a natural trust of each other. They were both almost as fiercely loyal as Hufflepuffs. Rose knew that if she ever needed to rant or talk out loud to anyone that wasn't Lunette or a cousin, Lorcan would be the first person she would go to. Just as he knew that he couldn't tell his best friend about his thoughts on Lily, Lorcan trusted Rose enough to make her his first person to openly admit out loud his hypothetical feelings and the fear that they might come true.

"Aren't you going out with Mabel?" Rose remembered.

Lorcan shrugged. "She's got bored with me and I realised what an arse I've been to James. I imagine Albus and Lunette have been doing the same to you."

"When two people are happy, they can be blind to everything else."

"I'm not sure I was exactly happy, just in a daze because for once a girl was giving me attention and not James."

Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Boys." she said in a half exasperated, half mocking tone.

At lunch time of the first day the Hogwarts students started lessons again, Rose had the pleasant surprise of Lunette sitting at the Gryffindor table with herself and Lily. She was glad to have her friends acknowledge her, even if Phil was still hanging around with Mel and Anna trying to get a boyfriend.

"Hey, Lunette, you want to go for a walk before last lesson?" Albus came over to the Gryffindor table to talk to them.

Rose leant back and spotted a very grumpy Scorpius sitting alone at the Slytherin table.

"Oh, well, Albus, I was thinking of spending some time with Rose." Lunette said uncertainly.

Rose had not been expecting that answer, she snapped herself back to the conversation.

"Really?" Rose let her excitement show more than she wanted. 'Pathetic,' she thought to herself, 'getting excited over a friend briefly leaving her boyfriend's side and spending a little bit of time with you.'

"Umm yeah, me and Rose have some girly talk to catch up on."

Albus seemed disappointed but walked away laughing thanks to the grossed out and bored face Rose pulled when Lunette mentioned 'girly talk'.

Rose saw that Scorpius was happy to spend the lunch time with Albus again. Lunette took Rose out to the courtyard and began talking to her uncertainly.

"Rose, I've been going out with Al for two months now." Lunette seemed concerned.

"Yeah, you two are good together." Rose nodded, Albus was her best friend but she didn't really want to talk about him at the moment. "So how has your extra-curricular potions stuff going? I heard the professor say something about you doing an extra course or training thing during the next summer holidays."

But Lunette ignored the change in subject. "I only ever go out with guys for a week or two at the most, this is all new to me."

Rose rolled her eyes and sighed. "Lunette, is it going well between you and Al?"

Lunette nodded.

"Then what's the problem?"

"I can't stay friends with guys once they've dumped me and I'm scared the same will happen with Albus."

"Has he given you any indication that he's going to break up with you?"

Lunette shook her head.

"Then he probably won't. He likes you way too much to break up with you. And the best part is, Al likes you for you, not just for your looks like other guys."

"But we've been dating for so long, I'm not used to it. And I get this wonderful feeling when I'm with him, and it's getting stronger. I'm just so scared that I'll get my heart broken or I'll accidentally break his. And all of this will go away." Lunette was white as a sheet, even her hair had involuntarily turned white.

"Lunette, have you tried talking to Al about this? He's probably dying to know if there's anything he can do to make you happier."

Lunette nodded slowly but didn't answer. Rose had no idea if she was being helpful or not.

The next day, Rose had a free lesson and went to the library to do some work for a couple of hours with Katie Webb, and as she exited, she was ambushed by a hex that turned her hair blue. She only noticed this because her fluffy hair flopped over her face.

"Malfoy you twat!" Rose shouted and spun around. And sure enough, there he was. Cockily grinning, pleased with himself for making Rose look silly.

Rose sent back a bat bogey hex which preoccupied him while she sent a jelly legs jinx. Scorpius managed to concentrate for long enough to send a biting jinx at Rose's bag so it started attacking her for him.

"Ha! Take that Weasley!"

Rose wrestled her bag to the ground and stood on it so that it would stop biting her. She muttered the spell that returned her bag back to normal. She sighed with exhaustion and Scorpius took that opportunity to give Rose buck teeth. Rose growled and sent back a hex which made leeks sprout out of his ears, then she ran back to the Gryffindor common room to sort out her blue hair and buck teeth.

James and Lily laughed when they saw Rose come into the common room.

"Malfoy?" Roxanne guessed correctly as she hid her smile poorly.

"Yep." Rose flopped up to her room and stood in front of the mirror charming her hair and teeth back to normal. There was a small knock on the door. "It's open." Rose called.

Lily came in. "Um, Rose, I heard Anna tell Mel who told Phil who had already heard it from Robin, and she was annoyed because Felix didn't tell her and she had to be told by Wesley who overheard it from Louis who has telling Hugo, that Dom said that Elliott Macmillan said that he caught Felix snooping about and he overheard-"

"You've lost me." Rose sighed not really understanding a word of what Lily was waffling about.

"Dom told Louis, who told Hugo who was overheard by Wesely and he told Robin, and she was really annoyed that Felix didn't tell her first who told Phil who also heard it from Mel who heard it from Anna, but Phil already knew, that Elliot Macmillan caught Felix snooping around and he overheard, or actually saw-"

"Lily, please talk like a normal person rather than chattering away to yourself."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Lunette and Albus broke up."

Rose stood up so quickly, it heard her head and she tripped over a makeup box that Mel had left out. "What!" Rose ignored the pain in the leg. "My best friends break up and I have to hear it through gossip?! Are they ok? What happened? Why? I thought they were happy."

Lily shrugged. "My brother doesn't tell me anything either. But Louis is studying in the library right now, just incase you want to find him so that he can let you into the Hufflepuff common room to talk to Lunette."

Scorpius hobbled back to his room with one leg still jinx as jelly. He got there to find Albus grumpily staring looking at an open muggle studies book without actually reading it.

"Did you have another fight with Rose?" Albus asked uninterestedly when he briefly looked up to see Scorpius pulling leeks out with his ears and taking the last bat painfully out of his nose.

Scorpius scoffed. "What gave me away?"

Albus hissed and slammed the book shut. "Why do you have to be such a prat all the time?"

"What?" Scorpius raised his eyebrows at his best friend. "I thought you were my best mate."

"I am, but seriously Scorp, you've got to get off her back. Are you really so much of a git when you were alone with her? Because if it's all a show, it's stupid."

"No. I'm often substantially more of a git when I'm alone with her."

Albus groaned and hit his head against the wall twice before looking back up at his friend. "Scorp, you have to dial it down, I mean, I know that it's not just you, but I swear it's not even witty anymore. Are you just trying to make her angry?"

"Maybe I like getting her angry." He shrugged and Al glared at him. He then mumbled to himself "It's really the only time she acknowledges me." Scorpius looked skeptically at Albus, he didn't usually care when he and Rose had a fight. "What's got your wand in a knot?"

"Lunette broke up with me." Albus grumbled bitterly.

"What?!"

"Yep, she dumped me." Albus wriggled until he was under his duvet and turned away from Scorpius.

"Are you sure?"

Albus sat up and stared daggers at Scorpius, a look he had never done before and wasn't really intimidating. "Am I sure she broke up with me?!" Albus mocked. "Really Scorp?! Of course I'm sure!"

"Right, sorry mate." Scorpius patted Albus's shoulder after removing the last leek from his ear.

"I want to be her friend, I can't go a day without thinking about or speaking to her. But Lunette can be stubborn in her thoughts. She won't be friends with me now we've broken up."

"Give me a couple of weeks, she'll be your friend again."

"How do you know?" Albus asked grumpily.

"It's hard not be your friend. When Weasley started hating me for no reason, I thought I'd lose you too. I even tried ignoring you for a couple of days because I thought it would be easier on me once you finally decided to take sides. But you didn't, you stuck with me Al and didn't take sides."

"Yeah, well, unlike you and me, Lunette has loads of other friends and can stand to lose one. We're stuck together." Albus grumbled. He turned to see Scorpius's sad face. He sighed and mumbled. "Shit, sorry I didn't mean to sound like that. We're not just friends because we're stuck in Slytherin together."

"I know mate. But look, when it comes to you and Lunette, well you're different to others. Remember you were her friend before you dated, that's more than most guys she's been with."

For a week, Lunette and Albus didn't talk to each other. They simply ignored each other in the hallway, Lunette would often turn around and go in an opposite direction if she ever saw him. Rose didn't know what to do, she decided not to take sides. But seeing as she barely got to talk to Albus without Scorpius present and she was avoiding him, so it happened that Rose spent more time with Lunette.

Scorpius, who was also avoiding Rose, chose not to pick sides either. Although Rose's reasons for ignoring him were because he annoyed her, Scorpius's reasons for ignoring Rose were that she did funny things to his heart that he still hadn't figured out yet. Lunette was also Scorpius's friend but she spent most of her time with Rose so he only managed to speak to Lunette once or twice even if it was just to say hi.

Albus grew more and more miserable each day. And Lunette's hair was a very dull blonde compared to her usual multicoloured stripes. It was often a very dull with a greyish tinge.

One Saturday afternoon, Lunette was waiting in the courtyard for Rose who was coming back from visiting Hagrid. Lunette gave a small wave but no smile as she saw Rose approach. Rose looked behind Lunette and saw Albus and Scorpius coming their way through a small wooden door, not often used. Albus was too busy moaning, staring at the ground to notice where they were going but Scorpius spotted Rose instantly. They both look at Albus, then at Lunette and seemed to have the same thought at the same time. As Albus went through the door Scorpius slowed down to pretend to shut the door, Rose sped up and ran towards it. Scorpius then quickly shut the door so that he and Rose were on one side and Albus and Lunette were stuck in the courtyard together.

Albus noticed that Scorpius was no longer behind him and looked up. He saw Lunette and his heart froze. Lunette on the other hand, had seen everything and had been unable to leave as quickly as Rose.

"I suppose they want us to talk." Albus grumbled and slumped on the cold stone bench opposite Lunette. "But I'm sure you don't want to talk to me. I'm just an ex-boyfriend. It doesn't matter that we used to be friends."

"Albus, we broke up ok. We don't have to talk to each other anymore. Listen, I told you so, I did tell you, I'm no good at-"

"No! Listen to me Lunette! Don't 'I told you so' me! The only problem in our relationship is that you're giving up. We were fine, even if things aren't fine, you should've known to come to me and talk rather than just giving up as soon as things got a little bit hard." he stood and started pacing.

"Albus! You don't understand, I was right. I can't do long term relationships."

"You can't, and I can't, but together we can! You're gave up on us because you don't believe in yourself. But what was really insulting, is that you don't believe in me. We could've made it Lunette! You know that and it freaked you out. Ok, so we don't exactly know what love is, but I believe this is it. And I know you well. Your feelings grew and that was too much to handle. Why didn't you talk to me?"

Lunette couldn't believe it. An ex was having a go at her. This had never happened before. Her other exes tended to dump her because she was boring then never talk again. Lunette had also never seen Albus angry or shouting. Immense guilt washed over her as she realised that she had made the nicest and calmest guy she had ever met shout at her. And everything he was saying was true. Lunette felt like someone had punched her in the gut.

"Look, Albus-"

"You know what? No. I can't do this. Shouting at you doesn't feel right, I can't be angry with you Lunette. I'm blaming myself for all of this, so you can cheer up now." He looked her astonished face and nodded. "Yeah I noticed, I may not have talked to you or even looked you in the eye. But I've noticed how miserable you've been. You chew your lip more than before, you don't seem to be certain of aything. You're paler and your hair reflects your feelings no matter how you try to hide your remarkable powers. And I don't believe that it's specifically me that's done this to you, you would never get this upset over some guy."

"You weren't just some-"

"Yes I was. Another ex boyfriend added to the list wouldn't make you so down, you don't always show it but I know that you are one of the most emotionally strongest people on this planet. The fact that you had real feelings freaked you out Lunette." Albus turned around and shouted over his shoulder. "I thought getting my thoughts out to you, I thought shouting and letting my frustration out would help. But it's not. I don't like being mad at you Lunette because I still love you." Albus sighed and walked away. Lunette heard him mumble. "I can't do it." He pushed open the door, surprised to find that Rose and Scorpius weren't listening behind it. He shrugged and sulked off to the Slytherin common room.

Lunette went back to her room and cried for a couple of hours. She missed Albus and she knew it was all her fault. He was right, Lunette wasn't one to usually cry over some guy, but Albus wasn't just some guy to her.

Meanwhile, Rose and Scorpius shut the door and smiled proudly at themselves.

"This should get them talking." Rose grinned smugly

"Yep." Scorpius nodded. They listened to silence as Albus sat down. "Now what do we do? We can't be here when they come back in."

Rose nodded in agreement. Only then did she notice how close she was to Scorpius. They were both leaning on the door frame and their heads were only a couple of inches away. Rose looked at his lips and remembered New Years. Her ears turned red and Scorpius grinned, knowing exactly what her thoughts were.

"We could always kiss again." he suggested only half jokingly.

Rose huffed and rolled her eyes. She pushed off the wall and began to walk away. "You're such a prick, Malfoy!"

"Oh, _I'm_ the prick?! You're the one who has been a thorn in my side for years!"

Rose stopped and turned around. She was more irritated than she realised. "What in Merlin's name is wrong with you?! You did that thorn bit just to piss me off!"

"So what if I did?! That's the point of us arguing, you piss me off, I piss you off!"

Rose groaned and rolled her eyes again. "You're pathetic, did you know that Malfoy?" and she sent a bat bogey hex at him.

"For Merlin's sake! What is it with you and this hex?!" he only just managed to get his words out.

Rose laughed. "I'm good at it and the more I use it, the more it frustrates you." and she strutted off to the Gryffindor common room to read a book.

Scorpius took a couple of minutes trying to get the bats to stop coming out of his nose. Rose was right, it really annoyed him that she was so good at that hex and there was little he could do to stop her from doing it everyday.

He heard Albus shout something at Lunette followed by thumping footsteps. Scorpius quickly ducked into the neighbouring corridor, just out of Albus's view. Scorpius heard excited whispering coming from an empty classroom and inched closer to listen in.

"Ok, look, I know that she has a potions class in the dungeons with Slytherin on Fridays after lunch. Now my plan is, if we do something at the top of the stairs, she'll fall down and make an even bigger fool of herself. That stuck up, insufferable smartarse deserves it." Growled the first voice that Scorpius vaguely recognised.

"Falling down the stairs? Couldn't she hurt herself? Isn't this all too harsh? Look, Leyton, I'm still not sure that I'm over her." Scorpius recognised the whiny voice of Felix Stirling instantly, who was now obviously talking to Daniel Leyton.

Scorpius could guess who they wanted to prank or scheme against, they were both dumped by Rose. Scorpius shrugged, telling himself that he didn't care what happened to Rose but he stopped after Daniel's reply.

"It's been two years, get over her already. I mean, it's not like she's that pretty anyway. Just take away the hair and no one would notice her. And I don't care if she gets hurt! I don't care if she falls down the stairs and breaks her neck. She's such a know-it-all bitch. You know, she told everyone that asked that I cheated on her, and now no one will go out with me because they think I'm some sort of dickhead."

Scorpius grit his teeth. 'But you are a dickhead, and no girl deserves to be cheated on by a twat like you.' Scorpius mentally told Daniel.

"But what if someone finds out that it was us?"

"Ha! No way, everyone will assume it's Malfoy. I mean, they hate each other so much, there's no way anyone will think to blame us. I mean, you said yourself the other day, you're still obsessed with her. No one would think you would hurt Rose."

"You're right, and I- I don't want too."

"Look here you pathetic excuse for a living being-"

"-please don't punch me-" Felix muttered.

Daniel ignored him and continued in a threatening tone. "You've already agreed to help me so there's no way I'm letting you out of this."

"Well, umm, what's in it for me? I mean, I like Rose so much-"

"She broke your heart right? You want revenge?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"And if that's not a good enough reason then how about this, I won't date your sister and make a fool out of her and damage her beyond repair that no guy would ever look at her again."

"Not my sister, not Robin."

"There we go, that's got your Hufflepuff protective loyalty going hasn't it. I'm disappointed that Hufflepuffs, with exception of you and that snivelling prat Norwood, have never let me push them around. I guess you two are the only stereotypical pathetically useless Hufflepuffs"

"So when are we doing this?"

"We've got to wait a week or two, I've still go to wait for my brother to send me whatever prank stuff he can through the post."

"And I'll make sure Rose is there to be pranked?" Felix seemed more assertive now that he gave himself a role.

"No, I'll do that. We both know about your failed attempt to trick Weasley into kissing you on New Year's Eve." Daniel chortled. "You couldn't even find her. I guess I'm going to have to trust you to set it up, I'll give you all the instructions and everything, I'll even make sure I walk past a couple of times to check that you're doing it right. But if I start setting things up, teachers and prefects are bound to ask questions."

Scorpius grit his teeth again and stalked off to the Slytherin common room, making a mental note to keep an eye on whatever Felix Stirling and Daniel Leyton were up to.

 **FEBRUARY**

"Jeez, what's wrong with you Scorp? Why are we going the long way to the hall?" Albus groaned loudly as he followed Scorpius.

"Shut up Al, just for a second, I've got to check something."

Albus rolled his eye. "You keep saying that. Why do you keep saying that?! For the past few weeks _all_ I've heard from you is 'I've got to check something'. What in Merlin's beard are you checking?!"

"Shh." he saw Daniel and Felix nod to each other as they got into the hall. Scorpius straightened his tie and led himself and Albus into the hall for breakfast.

"Scorpius!" Albus was getting frustrated as they sat down and still Scorpius hadn't explained himself. "You keep on acting like you're constantly watching our backs and it's getting annoying."

Scorpius sharply turned to Albus. "Would you please stop it with this moody attitude?! Al, you're my best mate and I know Lunette breaking up with you was painful, but can you stop being so, so..."

"So what?" Albus continued their argument in harsh whispers as they were beginning to get looks from Mae Blinston and her friends who all seemed to be still obsessed with Scorpius.

"I don't know! But you're not you. You're not cheerful and positive anymore. You've gotten quieter and grumpier."

Albus folded his arms. "Well, maybe if I had friends that actually had my back-"

"Excuse me?" Scorpius almost growled.

"You! Aren't you meant to be on _my_ side?! And yet you're still friends with Lunette, some friend of mine you are."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Oh, so we're having this conversation again?" he felt like an old married couple. "Lunette was my friend before you guys dated, and she's still my friend now. You know what Hufflepuffs are like, once you're their friend, they are very stubborn about letting you go. And," Scorpius sighed, "I guess, you might be happy to know, that she also isn't her old self."

Albus's expression was briefly one of concern but it quickly changed to bitter disbelief. "I know, I did notice that. But she's had two boyfriends since me."

"Yeah, well, no, both lasted about a week. Al, you lasted over a month, you were something special to her and she misses you too."

"I don't need your pity Scorp."

"Well, what about Weasel?" He pointed at Rose. "Your own cousin is still friends with her."

"Yeah, well they knew each other before I even entered the picture. And besides, I think Rose is having a tough time and needs a good friend like Lunette. Not that you care."

Scorpius bit his lip and nodded slowly. "Yeah, not like I care." he said softly. He couldn't even convince himself of that anymore but Albus didn't seem to notice.

One Saturday morning, Hugo went to the Slytherin common room. He played two games of chess with Albus before he decided that he was fed up with his cousin's grumpy mood.

"Look Al, would you cheer up just a little bit? Please? You're making chess not fun."

Albus raised his eyebrows. He didn't realise that he was so moody that it was putting Hugo off chess. The only thing in history to ever put Hugo off chess was when his uncle Ron told the story of when he was throwing up slugs. The story had made Hugo himself feel sick.

"You know what, I think I heard one of Rose's roomates say that she wanted to talk to you. Why don't you walk around for a bit? I'll stay here with Scorpius."

"You want to stay here with me?" Scorpius stopped and looked up.

Hugo shrugged. "I don't mind you, plus I've heard that you're smart. I say heard, Rose never stops complaining if you beat her in a test or something. But I'd like to challenge you to a game of chess."

"But you're my enemy's brother." Scorpius raised an eyebrow. He knew that Hugo didn't mind being around Scorpius if Albus was there too.

Hugo shrugged again. "I know Rose hates a lot of people and she can hold a grudge like nobody's business. And she's scary and she knows all the spells ever and probably has the ability to send an entire army to hospital, but I reckon her continued hate for you just seems like a matter of pride and stubbornness now, like her hate for you has actually dulled down a bit. Oh, that and you really bug her."

Scorpius smiled, Hugo wasn't a bad kid and he knew his sister better than most. Albus noticed Holly Buchan coming their way.

"You know what, I think I will go for a walk." Albus vanished out the door before Holly could talk to him.

"Um, hey Hugo?" Scorpius muttered as soon as Albus was gone. "Do you mind doing me a little favour? It involves your sister."

"Sure, just as long as she doesn't get hurt. Actually, if it involves her, I might get hurt or at the very least, shouted at. I tell you, I don't need a howler when I've got an angry bush of a sister like Rose." Hugo's smile disappeared for a second. "You won't tell I said that will you?"

Scorpius chuckled. "I can't get within ear shot without her hexing me, I think you're safe."

Hugo laughed too and sighed with relief. "Thanks. Now what is it you wanted me to do?"

Meanwhile, Albus was strolling around the castle, with the intent to eventually go down to Hagrid's, he just wanted to enjoy the fresh air first. Suddenly Anna Gardener bumped into him.

"Why, hello there Albus, funny seeing you around." she smiled flirtily.

Albus just nodded and felt awkward, he heard giggles from behind him. Albus spun around to see Phil Abel-Roy, Mel Fawley and Robin Stirling watching them. He knew that this must be some sort of setup from the group of girls. Rose had warned him that her roommates could be sneaky and manipulative when it came to guys. Albus felt even more awkward with Anna's friends watching him. And he felt like he never understood girls.

"Well, we kind of go to the same school, and, well, it's a nice day. So I, um, I guess it makes sense that we're both outside." Albus shrugged and wanted to disappear.

Anna's expression was one of pure flirtation, she looked behind Albus briefly and her expression turned to disgust but she changed back as soon as she looked back to Albus. He was confused, so he turned around again to see who it was, but Anna grabbed his arm and walked slowly on with him.

"Oh, Annabella, I actually wanted to, um go to Hagrid's hut for a while-"

Anna giggled. "You really should call me Anna. You're so cute Al. Can I call you Al?"

Albus felt an awkward overload and a desperate need to run away, but he kept his cool. "Well, actually, my family are the ones that call me Al-"

Suddenly someone else bumped into the pair, this time with so much force that it broke Anna away from Albus. Which he was grateful for. They both spun around to see Lunette had been the one to interrupt. She looked her guilty, very pale and and very flustered. Albus noticed that she was having a hard time maintaining her haircolour so that it didn't go white like it usually did when she felt flustered. Lunette would not have wanted Anna to know that she was a metamorphmagus.

"Oh! Hi, um, Albus." Lunette was desperately trying to stop herself from hyperventilating. "Oh, and Anna, wow, ok so you two are dating now? Ok, umm, well have fun!" Mortified at the fact that she even opened her mouth, Lunette began retreating immediately.

"Would you excuse me for just a second?" Albus said to Anna and quickly caught up with Lunette. "What's going on?"

"You're dating Anna! I thought you hated Anna, well not hated, but didn't like her. But here you are dating her!" Lunette spoke so quickly, it was hard to comprehend.

"Woah, I'm not, I'm not dating Anna."

"Really?! So you won't ever be interested in or even go on one date with Anna or anybody else for that matter?" Lunette sounded too cheerful and she mentally kicked herself.

"No, I-I can't say that." Albus wanted to hit his head against a wall or a door or anything hard enough to take away the pain of talking awkwardly to Lunette rather than kissing her.

Lunette looked behind her, Anna was standing waiting for Albus to return. "Hey! Umm, let's go away form here and I can show you something. Let's just hang out like old times at this, um, new place I found." Lunette grabbed Albus's arm and began dragging him away from Anna.

Albus refused to move.

"I know what you're trying to do, but we can't do this. We can't hang out as usual. I guess you were kind of right. We broke up, and if we hang out together just the two of us, it makes everything harder."

Lunette couldn't look at him. It hurt too much. She sighed heavily and restrained herself from crying. "I-I know what you mean. Umm, excuse me." Lunette ran towards the castle. Albus watched her leave with a twinge of guilt and sorrow pulling at his heart. He saw Lunette catch up with Rose who was just entering the castle.

Anna rolled her eyes and tried to hold Albus's arm again but he moved out of her reach. "Anyway, now that _she's_ gone," Anna said with a bitterness that Albus hated, "we can resume what I was about to ask you. About maybe going on a da-"

"Umm, Anna, I have to go." Albus said quickly and hurried off to Hagrid's hut.

Meanwhile Rose made her way to the library, with a very quiet Lunette in tow. While Rose set about writing a revision timetable for the exams in June, Lunette stared blankly at the ceiling. After an hour, Rose was a little bit freaked out that this behaviour had not changed and she took Lunette to an empty classroom.

"Lunette, what's going on?" Rose pleaded her friend to snap out of her silence.

"Rose, I did something stupid. I tried to stop Albus from even talking to another girl. I mean, I'm the one who ended it yet I'm the one making it difficult for either of us to move on. It's just that the thought of him with anybody else makes me miserable." She leaned her head on Rose's shoulder.

"Lunette, can I ask you a question?"

She nodded dully in reply.

"Why did you break up with him? I mean, I thought things were going great and you both really like each other. What happened?"

"Well that was exactly it. Things were going really well. I panicked I guess. I knew I would screw things up so I thought, why prolong the inevitable?"

"But how could you know that?"

Lunette started to tear up. "I don't, I didn't know that. I was just scared and now I've lost him."

"Yeah," Rose hugged Lunette sympathetically. "I hate to say it, but being friends with Al might just not be possible for you."

"I know. Not dating him his horrible, not being his friend is killing me but to cut him completely out of my life apart from awkward glances in the hallways is just the worst. And that's selfish, I know, but he's important to me."

"I, I don't know how to help. I'm sorry. But you really broke his heart."

Lunette sniffed. "Why are you even friends with me? Why is Scorpius still friends with me? You're both so loyal to Albus but somehow make time for me. I don't get it!"

"Well," Rose sighed and shrugged, "Despite what he says, I know that Albus would be angry if we stopped being your friend because of him. Lunette, you're important to Al too."

"I don't deserve him, I never did."

"Lunette, I believe you deserve anything you set your mind to and work hard for." Rose said determinedly.

Lunette looked Rose dead in the eye. "And you don't believe I worked hard for Albus?" her voice shook.

Rose took a deep breath, "As awful as it sounds, yes. You gave up and you didn't talk to Al. You were scared and didn't try hard enough to save what you had with him."

"Are you saying that I don't deserve him?!" Lunette was deeply hurt.

"You do Lunette, you deserve each other, and as cheesy as it sounds, you guys belong together." Rose rolled her eyes, she hated herself for saying such cheesy, lovey-dovey things. "But you needed to work harder at letting your feelings strengthen and not run away when they got too much."

"Ha! And what about you?! You hate feelings! You never like letting the strong ones show! What about you and Scorpius?! I'm pretty sure neither of you let your feeling strengthen! In fact, I'm pretty sure you two turned your backs on each other just as feelings stronger than friendship came into play! So don't you talk to me about feelings Rose!" Lunette practically shouted and slamming the door as she stormed out.

Lunette immediately regretted shouting at Rose. She stopped as soon as she exited the classroom and leant on the wall beside the door trying to control her tears.

Rose had said nothing in return. That was what surprised herself the most. She always argued back, having a little brother had prepared her enough for that. But for some reason Lunette had stumped her. She paced back and forth by the door, Rose did not want to leave until she figured out why she didn't argue back. Whether it was the fact that Lunette might just have been right or the fact that Lunette, of all people, had shouted at her, something had stopped Rose from opening her mouth in defense.

Deciding that Lunette had to be wrong, otherwise that would mean she had feelings for Scorpius, Rose barged through the door with the intent to go to her room and not think any more. But the sound of crying drew attention, Rose turned her head slightly to the left and saw Lunette.

"Rose, I'm- I'm sorry." Lunette spoke through sobbs. "I wasn't there when you and Scorp stopped being friends, I can't make assumptions. And you were right-"

"Lunette, I know I like to be right, but in this circumstance I don't need to hear it. It just makes me sound like an arsehole." Rose wrapped one arm around her best friend. "Why don't we go down to the kitchens and get you a drink?"

Lunette stopped crying and smiled softly. "Albus said I always smelt like hot chocolate."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Alright, we'll get you a hot chocolate." Her mind unwillingly drifted to the scent of peppermint and the certain blond boy she associated it with. Her ears turned red and she felt frustrated. Lunette luckily didn't notice.

The next Friday finally came and Scorpius kept a close eye on Felix Stirling and Daniel Leyton. He came to the conclusions that whatever they were up to was definitely happening that day. It made him late to all of his lessons that day, something which each professor reported to the head of Slytherin who just so happened to be the potions professor. The professor caught up with Scorpius just outside of the hall at lunch, which was inconvenient.

"This is unacceptable and completely out of character Malfoy! If you are late to your potions lesson today, I will give you detention and take twenty points from Slytherin! Do you understand?!"

"Yes sir."

Scorpius saw Felix and Daniel sneak away, he had had enough knowledge of where whatever it was was stashed to get them both a detention. But being shouted at by his potions professor didn't give Scorpius enough time to stop them in the act. It was time for plan B. Scorpius caught Hugo's eye and nodded to him.

"What was that?" Rose asked suspiciously as she witnessed the nodded between her brother and her enemy.

Hugo shrugged. "Nothing." He knew Rose wasn't convinced and saw it as a perfect opportunity. "Well, actually, I overheard Scorpius tell Al that his potions essay from last week was so much better than yours."

Lily eyed him suspiciously, she could tell that Hugo was lying. Rose would have normally been able to tell too, but the possibility of being beaten by Scorpius was not worth the risk and it sent alarm bells to her head.

"What?!" Rose was panicking.

"Er, yeah. But I think I saw your potions professor go down to his classroom right now if you wanted to talk-"

Rose was already gone before Hugo could finish. Scorpius had overheard the exchange and ran ahead of Rose.

"Professor! Can I speak to you about my essay from last week-" Rose blurted out as soon as she made it to the dungeon classroom.

"Look, Miss Weasley I'm trying to set up for my next class, which happens to be you, so would you mind if we spoke about this another time?"

"But sir-"

The professor looked at his stop watch. "It's almost class time, just sit down and we can speak later."

Rose huffed. "Fine." and she slumped in her seat at the front of the class

Scorpius had got to Felix just as he was walking away towards his prank to get the final touches ready.

"Oi! Stirling!" Scorpius had dragged Felix into an empty corridor just in time and Rose didn't see either of them when she ran to the dungeon classroom. Scorpius had watched as she safely run down the stairs to the potions classroom. He just hoped that she would stay there long enough.

"What?"

Scorpius suddenly remembered that Felix was there. "Oh, I know what you and Leyton are up to. And you both will have a detention with professor Longbottom. I'll talk to him later about it."

"What?!" Felix was panicking but it was time for their final lesson to start. He ran outside the room, knowing that Daniel would be waiting there to see Rose's humiliation. He whispered what Scorpius had said, and they both became angry.

As students poured into the potions classroom, Scorpius waited until they had all gone inside then made his way to the classroom.

Suddenly he felt a coldness dump on his head. He knew instantly that Leyton and Stirling had gotten him back for protecting Rose. He just hoped it was worth it. Scorpius debated going to his room, but he knew that if he was late or absent for this class he would get a detention. At least with this obvious humiliation, Scorpius knew that he had a reason to leave and avoid detention all together if the professor saw.

Scorpius took a deep breath before he walked into his potions class covered in red paint. Most of the class were laughing, but Albus looked embarrassed for him and Rose was sending him a confused look. Scorpius sat in his usual spot, next to Rose and in front of the professor's desk. He didn't say anything for a while but he knew that Rose's eyes were on him and she was desperate to ask why on earth he was covered in red paint.

"Stop looking at me Weasley, you're making me blush." more red paint from his head dripped onto his cheeks.

Rose quickly turned her head away from Scorpius and hide her face from his view. Scorpius leaned forward to try and see her expression. She hid it well but her shoulders occasionally bounced.

"No, you're not actually laughing at that joke are you?"

Rose tried to hide a smile and mumbled an unconvincing "No." she still didn't look at Scorpius.

He leaned forward once again to see her face and Rose started laughing properly. The professor walked in to see Scorpius rolling his eyes and covered in red paint and Rose laughing at him. He naturally assumed it was all Rose's fault. Without a second thought he began shouting.

"Weasley this is unacceptable! I expect each one of my students to come to class well behaved, in the proper uniform and not covered in evidence of harassment! I believe I have been tolerable of your disagreements with Malfoy, but to humiliate him in _my_ class in unacceptable! You will have detentions with me every Friday after dinner for the next three weeks! Ten points will be taken to Gryffindor! And your punishment starts now, get out of my class, you will spend the time sitting at the back of professor Lupin's class and explain to him what you have done, you can catch up on potions notes in your own time!"

"But sir-!" Rose tried to defend herself.

"No Weasley! Get out now!"

Rose angrily picked up her bag and began to storm out, but not without hearing Scorpius trying to speak.

"Professor, you've got it all wrong, it wasn't-"

"And as for _you_ Malfoy, I'm sure that you are not wholly innocent in all of this and therefore you will also have detentions with me for the next three weeks on Fridays after dinner! Now get out and tidy yourself up!"

Rose waited outside the class for Scorpius. When he arrived, just as annoyed as Rose, she caught him before he disappeared into the bathrooms.

"Malfoy!"

Scorpius spun around and rolled his eyes when he saw that it was Rose. "What do you want?"

"Who did this and why are they trying to blame me?"

Scorpius opened his mouth and closed it a few times before finding the words. "It wasn't- Well it was supposed- It was- you were the one who was- Oh nevermind, Why do _you_ care anyway?"

Rose shrugged. "I'm not sure I do, I just want to know why _I'm_ getting detention for no reason."

"Yeah, me too. Professor assumed it was my fault too." Scorpius grumbled. "I'm stuck with _you_ for the next three Fridays."

That night Rose went to bed in a foul mood. Three weeks of detentions for something she hadn't done. And to top it all off, Scorpius hadn't told her who did do it so they wouldn't be caught. Or so she thought. Little did Rose know that Scorpius had gone straight to professor Longbottom to tell him what happened before cleaning himself up. Longbottom agreed to give detentions to Leyton and Stirling, to not tell Rose (although he didn't know why she couldn't know) and Longbottom attempted the convice the potions professor of Rose's innocence, but he didn't believe his colleague or Scorpius.

Rose calmed herself down around the same time Scorpius cleaned himself up. Just before dinner. However it didn't stop her from sending him glares across the hall while they ate.

Later that night, Anna was groaning and screaming into a pillow that night as Rose was trying to read her book and Phil and Mel were quietly chatting on Mel's bed.

"I'm never going to get a guy like Albus potter! Especially with pretty and perfect girls like Lunette hanging around! Ugh, I hate her. She has to steal all the good guys!"

Phil and Mel looked quickly between Anna, who was pissed of and Rose who was holding in her impatience and irritation. They pulled the duvet over their heads and spoke even quieter.

Rose sighed, she decided to be calm and rational. Rather than flying off the handle like she was tempted to. But Rose decided that she had been angry enough for one day.

"Anna, you're right, in a way."

All three girls were shocked. Anna's eyes widened and Phil and Mel whipped to duvet off their heads to listen.

"All I'm saying is, you're right that you and every other girl, will never get Albus. And again, you're right, it's because of Lunette."

"Ha!" Anna was over confident and triumphant. "I knew it! Lunette is a bitch veela that steals-"

"No!" Rose angrily outburst. She took another deep breath and continued calmly. "I know Lunette and Al broke up, but they both have very strong feelings for each other. They may or may not date other people for a while, but I am positive that they will end up together in the end. There's just something that draws them together, it might even be love and all that mushy crap that makes people act stupid. Mark my words, they will live happily ever after like some cliche fairytale someday."

"Oh, like you and Malfoy." A cheerfully cheeky voice came from the door.

Rose and her roommates snapped their heads towards the door to see that Lily had sneaked in.

Phil laughed at Lily's remark, Mel didn't understand, Anna was annoyed at Rose and was hiding under her duvet and Rose herself was scowling at her cousin.

"Is there a reason you're here little cousin?"

Lily nodded, "Yeah, can I talk to you Rose?"

Rose shrugged and followed Lily to the common room.

"What is it Lils?" Rose slumped in a chair and crossed her arms.

"Well, I was wondering, how are you?" was all Lily said

"Is that it? Well, ok then, I'm going to bed. I'll see you tomorrow." Rose began to stand up but Lily pushed her down again.

"I'm serious Rose, how are you?"

"Why do you ask?"

Lily shrugged. "Because I know you and I love you and I want to know how you're doing." Lily sighed and sat beside Rose. "Look, your favourite cousin is best friends with your enemy. And your other best friend just broke up with your favourite cousin. You can't pick sides between your cousin and best friend. And you can't even talk to or comfort your cousin because your enemy is always by his side. Rose, are you ok?"

Rose sighed. "Wow, you really do know me. Well, to be honest, I feel lost and helpless. And I hate that you're right."

"I know you're not a hug person, but would you like one anyway?"

Rose nodded and hugged her cousin.

"Thanks Lils. What made you think to ask me? I mean, I know you're super considerate of everyone, but everyone else seems to be more concerned that Al and Lunette aren't getting along."

"The truth is Rose, someone kind of did it for me once. It sounds selfish, but when your bestfriends are going through something, others usually forget about you. It was when your grandma died, you and Hugo were going through a lot and you guys weren't yourselves. I felt like you do now, useless and that made me feel terrible. You guys were miserable and I felt just the same except that you had an actual reason. And you're not going to like this next bit, but Malfoy was actually the one who asked me if I was ok. He helped me and gave me some good advice. But because he noticed that I wasn't feeling myself, I felt a bit better. So I promised myself that I would do the same. I would look out for those caught outside someone else's problems, sometimes just recognising that person makes them feel a whole lot better."

Rose smiled.

"And, if you think about it," Lily continued, "Malfoy is going through the same thing. Hate him or not, you both have the same friends."

Rose couldn't help but give a small laugh. "This is so stupid. All of this is ridiculous. I mean, just three years ago Malfoy and I were best friends!" She hit her forehead with her palm. "What went so wrong? I mean, what went wrong other than him turning into a proud, arrogant twat who ignored my opinions, judgements, feelings and always started arguments. But what went so wrong?"

"Well, I have an opinion on that but you won't like that either."

Rose squinted skeptically. "Alright little miss chatterbox with all the theories, what do you think?"

"Ok, but don't hate me. I think you developed feelings for each other-"

"What?!" her ears turned red. Both Lunette and Lily had mentioned this within a couple of days.

"Just hear me out-"

"We were thirteen!"

"Rose, I think you and Malfoy felt something more than friendship begin to develope and it freaked you both out a little bit. You started hating each other because you were confused."

Rose rolled her eyes then yawned. "There isn't enough time in the world for me to tell you wrong you are and how much I hate Malfoy." she stood and made towards the stairs. "So I'm going to bed before you start suggesting that I'm like, I don't know, I love with him or something-"

Lily shrugged. "Well I wouldn't say _love_ but-"

"Ha! And I guess he 'loves' me too?"

"There is definitely something between you two-"

"No Lily." Rose rubbed her eyes. "Go to bed, you're thinking strange things."

Lily flopped in her airchair and thought back to lunch time. When she had seen the nod between Hugo and Scorpius, she saw Scorpius run out just before Rose and she heard a rumour that they both had detentions due to some sort of prank that Rose claimed not to have done, Lily knew to interrogate Hugo And she had done so after dinner. Hugo was very happy to tell her the truth but he didn't see why it was so important. But to Lily it almost confirmed what she believed to be true about the feelings of her cousin and the so called enemy.

 **MARCH**

The first and second detentions Rose and Scorpius had together were spent in complete silence. The third detention was in the first week of March.

"Look, Al, you don't have to follow me to detention." Scorpius rolled his eyes as he and Albus took the long way from the hall to the dungeons.

"Well, I'm bored and I haven't spoken to Rose in a while so I'm coming with."

Meanwhile Rose was already waiting outside of the dungeon classroom with Lunette by her side. Rose was leaning against the cold stone wall with her arms crossed, already bored and fed up.

"Why are you here?" Rose rolled her eyes.

"Well that's rude, I thought you'd enjoy the company." Lunette pretended to be offended but Rose saw right through her.

"I could just leave you out here on your own and go to my detention. The professor has bound to have noticed that I'm just hanging around outside rather than going in. And I don't want to spend anymore time in this detention than I have to. I've done nothing wrong."

"This time." Lunette mumbled.

"What was that?" Rose stood up properly.

Lunette grinned and spoke clearer. "I said, you did nothing wrong _this time_. We both know that you've done a great number of things, especially to Scorp, that you should've gotten a detention for but didn't because you weren't caught." Rose was about to interrupt but Lunette raised a hand to silence her. "And yes I know he's just as much to blame as you. Think of it as justice. You both argue and break the rules without punishment on a daily basis. Now both you and Scorp get detentions for something you haven't done. Speaking of Scorp, he's the reason I came along with you."

Rose rolled her eyes once again and slumped against the wall.

"If you keep rolling your eyes, they'll get stuck that way." Lunette said in a motherly tone which made Rose laugh. "Look, since the whole thing with Albus, I haven't spoken to Scorpius very much and he's still one of my best friends."

"Loyal Hufflepuff." Rose grumbled with a smile.

Lunette grinned back. When Scorpius came down the stairs Lunette grinned at him too and attacked him with a hug. Rose groaned and was about to go through to the classroom but saw Albus lagging behind.

"Hey Al." Rose smiled, she hadn't spoken to her best friend in while.

"Hey Rosie."

Rose scowled, only her parents got away with calling her Rosie. Albus knew that.

"I see Lunette's here." Albus sighed, his heart thumping in his chest at the sight of her. He felt to awkward to even talk to Rose.

It hurt Rose to see Albus so upset at the presence of the girl he had deep feelings for but couldn't show. Not that he did a good job at hiding his feelings.

"Look, Al-"

"No, I should let you get to your detention. I'll see you around Rose. I might pop up to the library or to your common room tomorrow if you're not in Hogsmeade."

Albus left with a nod to Scorpius and a sorry expression to Lunette. She saw him and quickly followed. Which left Rose and Scorpius and their final detention. Final for the moment.

"Weasley." Scorpius acknowledged her.

"Malfoy." Rose grunted back. She waited for him to go through to the classroom before following him in.

Their potions professor sent them to the study room on the fourth floor of the castle to clean all the windows by hand. Having never cleaned anything by hand or by magic, Scorpius was slow to pick up the simple task so the professor stayed and watched for half an hour, making sure that Scorpius had to redo three of the four windows he had completed at a snail-like pace. After the professor left, the dull and tense silence began again. Rose buckled down and worked quickly and efficiently wishing the detention to end as soon as possible. The only thing worse than having to spend time with Scorpius for three weeks in a row, was spending time with him without so much as a sentence passing between them. It was a sudden swing from arguing to no words whatsoever. They were also instructed to remove all cobwebs from the room, magic was allowed for the especially high ones, and to mop the floors.

Four hours later and they were finished. Rose and Scorpius never truly realised how massive, dusty and old the study room was until they had to clean every inch of it.

"Do we have to go back to the professor or do we simply go our different ways?" Rose startled Scorpius by speaking.

"Well look at that, she speaks." Scorpius raised his eyebrows.

"Shut up Malfoy and answer the simple question."

"I don't know, we probably should go back, I don't want you getting me another detention for something I didn't do."

"How can you make this my fault?! You're a right tosspot, you know that right?! This wasn't _my_ fault and yet I get a detention. You could have very easily explained to the professor what happened!"

"No I couldn't! He gave me a detention too and I was the victim here!"

Rose scoffed.

Scorpius continued. "Why would I even want to stand up for you anyway?!"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because I'm your best friend's cousin, or maybe because it's the right thing to do, or maybe for old times sake?!" Rose shouted and began to storm off.

Scorpius grabbed her arm before she got too far away. "We both know-"

Rose wriggled away a stormed off again. Only to have Scorpius grab her arm once more. He pinned her against the wall so that she would listen. He had one hand holding her shoulder to the wall and the other planted firmly beside her head. Upon reflection, Scorpius later realised that he didn't pin her too hard to the wall and Rose could've left again if she wanted. He knew of her strength.

"Look, Weasley, you can't keep bringing up old times when it suits you!" he looked into her eyes and was reminded of the funny feeling he got at the start of the year. His tone softened "If it was up to me-"

"What was that?!" Rose snapped her head to the right and interrupted Scorpius.

Seeing it was hopeless, Scorpius let go of her and sighed.

"No, Malfoy I'm serious, what was that noise?" Rose felt the wall beside a mirror next to them.

"What noise?" Scorpius grumbled.

"It sounded like..." Rose didn't know how to finish that sentence. She looked him, and then at his left hand which had been resting next to her head.

Much to Scorpius's surprise, Rose gabbed his left hand and placed it beside her head again. He had no objections, it brought him closer to Rose, even if she wasn't paying attention to him. Scorpius felt the brick beneath his hand sink into the wall and he jumped back. This time he heard the noise too, almost like a door opening from inside the wall and scraping along the stone floor.

Scorpius and Rose looked around the corridor, none of the doors were open.

"I guess it was nothing." Scorpius shrugged and turned away.

Annoyed by his lack of interest, Rose decided to leave it alone too and set off straight after him.

Of course Rose, being Rose, tripped and dragged Scorpius down with her. But instead of falling on the floor, they fell down into darkness. There was a loud bang and they knew they were stuck.

...

After Albus and Lunette had left Scorpius and Rose at their detention, Lunette was determined to get a conversation out of him without arguing. She refused to remember their last conversation as an argument. That's not how she wanted Albus to be in her mind and she didn't want to be some heartless ex in Albus's mind either.

"Albus!" Lunette called out to him as soon as they reached the first floor.

"What-? Oh Lunette, hi." Albus turned around and went red.

"Umm, Allbus, I just, I just wanted to say-" Lunette choked 'what?' she thought to herself. 'I wanted to say what? Anything. I just want to say anything, why did I even open my mouth?!'

Albus looked at her expectantly. "What?" he also desperately wanted to say something, but what to say had escaped him completely.

"Oh, nothing." Lunette gave up and ran to her common room before she could feel any tears coming.

Albus was left bewildered and more hurt. If Lunette couldn't even speak to him anymore, that was it for them. No happily ever after in the future.

...

" _Lumos._ " Rose muttered once she pushed herself off of Scorpius who was laying on the ground.

The dark room was more of a narrow tunnel or pit with only just enough room for two people. Scorpius stood slowly behind her, his head hurt.

"Where are we?" he began to panic. "It's so small and dark in here. So empty." his heart raced. "I don't like it, Weasley I don't like it." fear edged through his voice.

But Rose remained calm. "Fourth floor, I knew there was tunnel behind the mirror but I thought it was blocked up years ago." Rose was more speaking to herself than to Scorpius. The light from her wand reflected off of something high above them, she knew it had to be the mirror. She went on mumbling. "James and Lorcan must have been spending a lot of time trying to unblock it, I never realised they got so far, the map didn't show how big..."

"Map? That exists!" Scorpius had overheard James and Lorcan say something once about a map with hidden rooms on it.

"What?!" Rose realised what she had said. "Oh, I don't know what you're talking about."

"No, you said map-"

"No I didn't! Now shut up and think of a way out of here. The door is too high up and jumping won't work."

Scorpius, without giving it a second thought, lifted Rose up by the waist.

"MALFOY!" She shouted in anger. "PUT ME DOWN NOW!"

Scorpius gave an exasperated sigh, "Look, can you reach the door or not?" He was really trying to control his fright. The pit-like room full of darkness scared him more than the enormous dining room in Malfoy manor at night. He was sure that he could hear the rattle of the gate leading to the dungeons whenever he walked past when it was dark out.

Rose reached up but still couldn't grab the ledge. "No." she called down.

Scorpius lifted her up higher, so that she was sitting on his shoulders.

"Please don't drop me." Rose said shakily.

"Come on Weasley, no one's as clumsy as you. Don't worry, I've got you. I won't let you fall." he could feel her trembling as she tried again to reach up. "I won't let you go." he said softly as he clung tightly to her

"Yeah, well, somehow I find that hard to believe given our history with the tripping jinx." Rose decided to use insults to cover up her nerves.

"And for the same reason I find it hard to have faith that you'll help me up once you're out."

"I guess we're just going to have to trust each other then." Rose huffed.

Neither was thrilled with that idea.

Rose reached out and her fingers brushed the edge of the ledge. "Can you get me any higher?"

"I can jump. Ready, three, two, one!" Scorpius jumped and Rose managed to get a strong grip on the ledge. Scorpius let go for her and Rose army crawled, clutching her wand, on to the fourth floor.

She rolled on to her back and panted. She was out of the claustrophobic hole. 'I'm going to have a go at James later. He could have at least put a witty warning sign- MALFOY!' alarm bells went off in her mind. He still wasn't out.

Fear threatened to pound Scorpius's heart out of his chest. He closed his eyes and imagined he was somewhere else. 'At least she's out. At least she's not scared like I am.' he thought repeatedly to himself.

"Cover your head!" a voice shouted down. It startled Scorpius. But not as much as the next thing that happened. " _Levicorpus!_ "

Scorpius found himself being dragged up by in ankle through the darkness. He shut his eyes to stop himself from being sick. Small hands grabbed his feet and yanked him through the passageway. Scorpius briefly opened his eyes to see his paler than usual expression in the mirror. Rose dragged him into the hallway then leant against the opposite wall calming herself down.

"Thanks." Scorpius gave a shaky sigh once he caught his breath and calmed his heart rate down. "I'm glad you saved me back there."

"We weren't in any danger." Rose shrugged.

Scorpius swallowed his pride and shook his head. "I was. I was terrified, I was in danger of a heart attack or a complete meltdown."

He expected a scoff or an eye roll or at least an insult from Rose but instead she gave him a look of concern and understanding.

"You're afraid of the dark?"

"I'm afraid of my home, which is always dark. Most of all I'm afraid of being alone in the dark. Trapped."

Rose smiled and stood. She held out a hand to help him up, she never did this for anyone. Scorpius took the opportunity and held her hand as he stood.

"Don't worry. I won't let you go." She stroked his hand gently with her thumb. "Now lets shut this bloody mirror door thing and get out of her. I either need a shot of firewhiskey or a massive cup of tea."

Scorpius grinned. "I think I need it more than you. And tea will be easier to get from the kitchens. I doubt there's even a drop of firewhiskey in the entire castle."

Rose laughed. "That's where you're wrong. James and Lorcan, at the very least, have bound to have some stashed away somewhere."

They silently made their way down to the first floor, it wasn't an awkward silence, but one of relief and brief respect for one another. When Rose finally spoke, they were nearing the great hall.

"Why don't you wait here or in a classroom and I'll bring you a cup of tea." She looked at him once again with concern. "You're still looking pale. You're hands are shaking like a leaf."

Scorpius looked down and realised she was right. "Ok, I'll just be here." he accepted her kindness It was rare that either of them would act friendly to one another, let alone accept such behaviour from the other without being suspicious.

Scorpius sunk down to the ground and was startled to hear voices from inside the closest classroom. He recognised them immediately.

...

Four hours from his conversation with Lunette, Albus decided to go looking for Scorpius. It had been long enough, he must be done with his detention by now. However, before Albus got past the first floor, he ran into Lunette again.

"Oh! Lunette, sorry, I didn't think I'd see you..."

"Albus I need to speak with you." Lunette rushed out in one long breath. "I was actually making my way down to..." she drifted off and looked embarrassed.

"Well, ok-" he stopped abruptly as Lunette yanked him by the wrist into the nearest classroom.

"Ok, Albus, there are some things I need to say to you but they're really difficult. So would you please do me a favour?" Lunette couldn't look at him. Her hair was a pale shade of pink, as were her cheeks.

Albus couldn't refuse her anything. "Sure. What do you want me to do?"

Lunette sighed with relief and began to pace. "Just, ok, just wait here until I sort out what I want to say. Because if you leave the room I will loose all willpower to speak to you again. I don't mean that in a horrible way, I just mean that, well, I mean..."

"You mean that you'll be too nervous or guilty to talk to me again. Lunette, I understand, I've felt the same way for a long time. I'll just sit here and wait for you to shout at me-"

"Shout at you?" Lunette was astonished. "That's what you think I'm going to do?"

Albus shrugged. "I shouted at you, I've said my piece. And now it's your turn."

"Albus, I'm not going to shout at you. At least, that's not what I'm planning to do."

"But I really wanted to shout at you! I didn't want to want to shout at you and I've felt like a right knobhead since. But I wanted you to know how bad I felt about our relationship ending because you meant so much to me!"

"Look, I want to do the same, kind of. I want to tell you that you weren't alone in your strong feelings-"

"I was. I think you'll find that I was. As much I feel about you Lunette, I've finally shown myself that you never truly loved me. You can't have."

Albus had spoken in such a resigned manner that it cut Lunette like a knife. Sharp tears threatened and she sat down quickly. "Don't say that! You don't know what love is, neither of us do! You can't be certain that's what you were feeling and you have no idea what I was feeling! You can't just convince yourself that I didn't feel as strongly simply because it makes it easier to move on. Or because it makes you the victim, in love alone, or so you thought!"

"You think it's easy for my to try and move on? I haven't even started yet! I thought I loved you, but then I also thought love was, when you miss the other person like crazy!" Albus began to pace.

"It is! I think."

"Well did you ever love me?"

"Of course I do!"

"Well you seem to pretty happy, going out and flirting with other people. I miss you like crazy! I feel like is was in love alone. You're getting over what we had very well and I'm just left here wondering if what we had was just another passing fancy." Albus couldn't believe that he had just said that, it was way too harsh.

"Are you kidding me?! I loved you, so much! I miss you all the time, you're all I think about. But I have to put on a brave face otherwise I'll have a complete meltdown. I love you so much and it's killing me that we might not end up together in the end!"

Albus suddenly stopped pacing and looked up. He turned to her, eyes wide open. "Wait, loved or love?"

"What?"

"You said both. You said that you _loved_ me and then you said you _do love_ me."he took a step forward

"So?"

"So which one is it?! Past or present?! Because of you still love me, why are we not together? Because I never stopped loving you. From the moment we met, I have loved you."

"Albus, we don't know what love is, not really-"

"But this has got to be it." Albus held her hands gently.

"Well, I've been thinking that, but I don't know."

"Neither do I." Albus sat down beside her. He had no idea what to do.

They sat in silence for a while, just holding hands and staring at the floor.

Rose had been standing outside of the door for most of the conversation, holding two cups of tea. When she couldn't find Scorpius again, she simply stopped outside the classroom where Albus and Lunette were. She heard a faint rustle behind her. She spun around to see a lump behind a tapestry. She rolled her eyes and gently kicked the shoes she could see poking out.

"Eavesdropping on your friends Weasley?" Scorpius pretended to be innocent as he pushed back the tapestry.

Rose scoffed. "Guilty as charged, how about you?"

"Nosey Gryffindor, it's none of your business."

"Oh 'cunning' Slytherin, grow up. How much did I miss?"

"I heard movement, I thought it was them leaving so I hid. Turns out it was you I heard"

"You hid? Pathetic."

"You've said that before."

"And it just keeps on getting truer."

Scorpius rolled his eyes and took the tea offered to him, trying to listen to Albus and Lunette but they were still silent.

"Answer me, what did I miss?" Rose sat opposite him.

Scorpius shrugged. "Not much, just them acting like the lovesick fools they are."

Rose nodded. "They get all soppy and cheesy. It's weird. Phil and Mel say it's cute when couples act like that, but I-"

"-I just find it gross and annoying." Scorpius finished her sentence, something that usually irritated Rose.

"Same."

Scorpius sighed. "They're miserable without each other and they're soppy when they're together. There's no middle ground."

"They're just really happy people who deserve each other."

"Yep. It's actually a bit irritating when two people are perfect for each other, and everyone can see it, but they can't." Scorpius looked over at Rose and caught the scent of rain and new parchment. He quickly looked away from her and began to shuffle away.

"What in Merlin's name was that for? It's not like I'm going to hex you now, I'm staying quiet so that the lovebirds don't hear us." Rose harshly whispered.

Scorpius nodded uncertainly. "Right, I know that."

Rose shushed him as Albus and Lunette began talking again.

"Albus, you're not going to ask me out again are you?" Lunette asked softly.

Albus shook his head sadly.

"Because you want me to want to go out with you. You don't want to make me feel obliged to date you?" Lunette guessed.

"Pretty much." Albus shrugged. "I'm sorry I pressured you into going out with me before."

"But you didn't." Lunette answered quickly. "Albus, I really like you so I dated you. It was my own selfish thoughts and my self doubts that made me break us up."

Albus hit head head on a table a couple of times. "I wish it worked out."

Lunette stood, cupped his face with her hands and kissed him.

"Ew, nope. I don't want to eavesdrop on my cousin kissing someone." Rose was grossed out and tried to leave but Scorpius grabbed her hand and made her stay.

Albus searched Lunette's eyes. "What was that for?"

"Do you want to try again? I can do it, I think. I know that I need to talk to you more about my worries, I know that now. Spending time apart has been too hard. I miss you Albus."

Albus kissed her again. "I've missed you too." he said dreamily. His tone suddenly changed to a cheekiness. "So I guess you'll have to ask me out!"

Lunette giggled. " _I_ have to ask _you_ out? You know, I've never asked anyone out before."

Albus shrugged. "I know, which is why I think this would be a really good learning curve for you." he winked.

Lunette grinned. "Oh, I see, so that I know how scary it is and it won't be so hard the next time I ask someone out." she raised her eyebrows.

"Exactly- wait." Albus caught on. "Next time? I don't really want there to be a next time. I know we're only seventeen, but my parents met long before then and they started dating around that time, so maybe-"

Lunette cut him off with another kiss.

"You know, if you keep on doing that, you're going to have to ask me out sometime."

Lunette raised one eyebrow. "Oh do I now?"

Albus wrapped his arms and her waist and brought her closer. "Definitely, otherwise I'll have to ask you out. I might not be as stubborn as Rose or Scorp, but I might be able to hold out for a while since I know that you feel the same way."

Lunette giggled. "Well I can't wait that long." she kissed him once again before sitting beside him and leaning on his shoulder. "Hey Al?"

"Yep?"

"Wanna go out?" she said in a throw away tone and looked at her nails at the same time.

Albus shrugged. "Yeah, sure, whatever. It's not like I could do any worse than you." he smiled sheepishly at her.

"Good. Because you're stuck with me."

Albus jumped down as quick as he could, the widest grin on his face and pulled Lunette close to him.

"Seriously Malfoy, I don't want to hear this mush anymore. I can't eavesdrop on my cousin kissing my best friend."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "What if he caught us kissing, would you expect him just to up and leave?" he almost regretted saying that until he looked in Rose's eyes. Scorpius saw for second that Rose had thought about kissing him again. Her ears turned red, he loved it when her ears turned red.

"I- we- no, no. If Albus caught us kissing, which would never happen-"

"Because we're too careful not to get caught."

Rose grit her teeth and her ears turned redder. "No, he wouldn't catch us because it never will happen. And even if it did and he caught us, I would want him to interrupt and bring me to my senses!" Rose yanked her hand away from Scorpius and stormed off. Leaving her empty mug for him to take back to the kitchen.

The next day Rose spotted James and Lorcan huddled over a small table in the Gryffindor common room muttering to each other. Rose scowled and stormed towards them with great purpose.

"James Sirius Potter! We need to talk, and by that I mean I'm going to talk and _you_ are going to listen! The fourth floor-"

"Shh." James waved her off.

Rose's nostrils flared. "James! Your pranking has become a serious hazard!"

"Shh, we're discussing." James mumbled again.

Rose crossed her arms. "You two are idiots, did you know that?"

Lorcan looked up, "In our defence, we actually did know that."

"Shh, idiots at work here." James rolled his eyes and gave her and irritated look once he realised that she wasn't going away. "Rose, Lorcan and I would be very happy to have a little pep talk with you or even be on the receiving end of one of your prefect rants, but right now we don't want to hear anything but hilarious ideas."

Rose raised one eyebrow, "So you're out of ideas. All dried up?" she found this amusing.

Lorcan shrugged, "Look Rose, no offense, but unless you have an excellent idea for our final April 1st prank."

Rose nodded in understanding, "Ah, I see. An April Fools prank to be remembered. It's your last year."

"Exactly." James sighed and banged his head on the table a couple of times.

Rose laughed, "If you keep doing that you'll turn into Albus."

"Rose do you have anything useful to say?!" James was frustrated. "Sorry," he realised he snapped at her. "We have an idea, a really good one but it just doesn't seem, well..." he shrugged in a hopeless manner.

"It doesn't seem to have that punch that our pranks usually have." Lorcan finished his sentence. "People are expecting it now."

Rose grinned mischievously, "I think I have a perfect idea." She brought up and chair and sat with them. "Ok so, first year you tricked most of the teachers into eating puking pastels, second year you replaced all the of the Slytherin quidditch team's wands with trick ones so they when they came back from practise their wands turned into rubber chickens and loo seats. You got two weeks detention for both of those and letters sent home. What was your third year prank?"

"Oh that was a brilliant one, we used permanent sticking charms to stick violins to Professor Stockett's office ceiling, and then bewitching them to play the music from _Jaws_. That was great, she had no idea where the music was from, just that it drove her mad listening to it all day." James smiled proudly.

"Most of the muggle borns knew what it was though, they loved it." Lorcan chuckled.

"Yeah, Stockett tried to get rid of them by setting the ceiling on fire. Merlin, that was hilarious." James stopped laughing and rolled his eyes. "But of course we got three weeks of detention and letter sent home again."

Lorcan laughed, reminiscing, "Fourth year we managed to get all of the first years to use muggle biro pens instead of quill but we used that levitation charm so that they kept on floating out of the windows."

"Oh yeah!" James grinned. "But the charm wore off and the Whomping Willow smashed the pens to pieces when they fell into it. Again we got three weeks worth of detentions and letters home."

"Dad sent me a howler for that one." Lorcan seemed scarred by the experience. "Oh, and fifth year we tried to trick people into trying our extreme versions of Canary Creams but everybody stayed away because they didn't trust us, especially on April, Fools. So we just set off dungbombs randomly throughout the day always near Rory Green, the old slytherin quidditch captain. Man, he was a right tosspot. I never liked him."

"Yeah that was the git Lucile had a crush on. I wanted to humiliate him one final time before he left Hogwarts. We both got howlers for that one, 50 points each taken from Gryffindor and three weeks of detentions again."

Rose nodded. "And last year you got Quick-Quote Quills to follow around the teachers."

James nodded. "Four weeks detention, another 50 points each from Gryffindor and again we both got howlers."

Rose flashed a devious smile. "Well, you see the pattern here right, people are less and less surprised with your pranks. They expect something and therefore avoid targeting. The teachers always know that it's you two, although there is no way to solve that problem. And you get detentions, a tonne of detentions. So I have a little suggestion."

The both leaned eagerly towards Rose

 **APRIL**

On April first, Lorcan and James woke up with cheeky grins on their faces.

Everyone was worried.

Everyone jumped out of the duos way whenever they walked down the same corridor. The teachers watched them suspiciously throughout their lessons. Lorcan almost got a detention because professor Stockett saw him reach into his bag to get something, after a thorough inspection, she found that he had been telling the truth and was only getting his ordinary quill out of his ordinary bag. They had done exactly what Rose had suggested and it worked like a dream. They did nothing. No pranks set up, no tricks. James offered a scared looking second year a harmless and normal piece of fudge which sent the poor boy running to the opposite side of the castle. Too many suspicious teachers and prefects sent James and Lorcan to professor Longbottom's class after dinner. Neville simply laughed when they turned up and let them go on their merry way back to the common room. All Gryffindor students, except for Rose, were expecting them to do something at any moment so the common room was unusually quiet and empty. Those that did stay were the ones who wanted to see it happen, they hid in the stairwells or stayed on the opposite side of the room near the portal for easy escape, all eyes were watching the pair play a bad game of chess, which would have shamed Hugo, by the window.

However, in the second week of April, they carried out the second stage of Rose's idea. She was right, everybody had lulled themselves into a false sense of security as April Fools had been and gone. And that's when the true prank happened. The one they were most proud to finish their final april fools prank on.

It all started at breakfast.

James and Lorcan had managed to convince Peeves to get chalkboards from every classroom to hover above the student's heads in the great hall. Various insults were written on them as Peeves made up a song on the stop to make sure everybody heard the insults.

The students themselves were a sight to be seen. The room was full of laughter as the Ravenclaw students found themselves with big buck teeth as they entered the hall. The Gryffindor students were startled as each and everyone of their bags had been bewitched to roar randomly throughout the day, in fact the lion's roar had woken most of the students up that morning. Every twenty minutes on the dot, the entire Hufflepuff house would change colour, it was mesmerising to see such a huge body of students suddenly switch from having orange robes to pink, and then twenty minutes their robes turned purple and so on. Slytherins woke up with red hair and two or three frogs followed them throughout the day, most of the woke up screaming with a frog hopping on their bed.

Lunette decided to give Albus some time to spend with Scorpius that day because frogs creeped her out. Rose was especially entertained at seeing a redheaded Scorpius. She cracked jokes about it all day. It was nice to be on the other side for once, even if she was still a redhead herself.

At lunchtime fireworks erupted around each teacher and ribbons were bestowed on their robes depicting which teachers were the favourites of the pranksters. Professor Longbottom getting 1st, professor Lupin got 2nd, headmaster Fairweather got 3rd, professor Nye got 4th… and so on, ending with professor Stockett receiving a ribbon that wouldn't come off and very loudly played the soundtrack of _Jaws_ , which irritated her more than it did the first time she heard it on repeat.

Finally, at dinner, when the enchanted ceiling reflected the clear night where the stars were brightly written in a touching sentence:

' _This year's April Fools and it's playful tricks are dedicated to the Weasley twins, may their mischievous legend live on.'_

Once it was read a couple of times by everyone in the great hall, a thunderous applause erupted from each table. Despite the inconveniences that the pranks had played on each student, they were impressed and most took it in good humour. There were a few who sat and scowled at their happy fellow students while they brooded in anger.

James and Lorcan stood on the bench and took a bow to the room, grinning from ear to ear.

"Thank you! Thank you!" James put on a posh voice. "But today would not have been successful without my dear partner here, Lorcan Scamander." He pointed at Lorcan who took another bow.

"Thanks! But today would not have been accomplished without my dear friend here, James Potter." Lorcan then pointed at James who took another bow.

Most people were now laughing, including the majority of the teachers.

"Thanks to our other accomplice, the smartest person we know, who shall remain nameless!" James wiggled his eyebrows and dug his hand into his pocket. "We've had a great final April Fools and thanks to you all, well most of you, for being such great sports."

"We'd love to stick around but right now we have somewhere else to be! Mostly to prolong the inevitable demand for detentions." Lorcan also dug his hand into his pocket.

"Three! Two! One!" the counted together then threw Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder on the floor. While everybody was unable to see, James and Lorcan slipped out of the great hall and disappeared.

Once the darkness lifted, the enchanted ceiling suddenly erupted with a magnificent fireworks display. All sorts of pictures sparkled in the sky, from the Weasley logo to a giant yellow dragon. A green snake appeared, only to be kicked out of the way by a blue eagle which then quickly fluttered out of the way for the red lion which appeared. All three animals quickly back away though as soon as the yellow badger arrived, it ran towards each of the animals in turn and they disappeared one by one. Finally, an orange fox jumped down for the ceiling, everyone could feel the heat of the enchanted firework but no one was burnt. It hopped down onto the Gryffindor table, stole the book from beside Rose, clutched in it's jaws, and bounded back to the night sky ceiling. Everyone laughed as the fox stood on it's hind legs and opened the book as if to read it. The fireworks fox dropped the book on Scorpius's head and then vanished. The laughter that followed Scorpius's bruised head and Rose grabbing her book back, soon died down and everyone went back to bed. Knowing that the delayed April Fools was over.

Most guessed that the duo went to the Gryffindor common room, but that was where they were wrong. It had been yet another one of Rose's brilliant ideas. The two hid in the pit like room behind the mirror in the fourth floor. James and Lorcan knew that the next day would bring multiple detentions, many points taken from their house and too many howlers to count. But for that evening they were going to have some a quiet but fun time. Throughout the week Rose, James and Lorcan snuck two armchairs, blankets, a chessboard, jugs of pumpkin juice, flasks of hot chocolate and other bits and bobs down into the room so that James and Lorcan could remain hidden in their until the following day. Rose had also conjured some bluebell flames in little jars to keep James and Lorcan warm and to keep the room bright.

Meanwhile, the teachers were discussing the two in the teacher's lounge.

"Of all the scheming, childish, arrogant, demon bastards-" Stockett was ranting until headmaster Fairweather interrupted.

"Professor, I remind you that these are students you are referring to."

"Exactly!" she erupted. "Where are they?! They have to be punished now!"

Neville and Teddy Lupin laughed. "Come on now, give them a break."

"Yeah," Teddy agreed with Neville. "It's their last April Fools, they were just having fun."

Professor Nye smiled admirably. "Indeed, and I believe that today has shown the great deal of skill, intricacy and knowledge that we have passed down to our students. Even Potter and Scamander, two of the hardest, misbehaved and fidgety students at the school for now, have learnt and absorbed so much from us. Rearranging the stars on the enchanted ceiling would not have been easy. And that the changes they made effected every single student, shows what powerful and smart wizards they are."

"Very well put." Neville nodded in agreement.

"I believe we are all proud of our most difficult students tonight. We were too busy telling them off to realise how much they learnt so much from us. I am also proud of you, my staff." Headmaster Fairweather raised his mug of tea to them all and shone a warm smile.

"Well, when you look at it, what you would consider our most misbehaved students are our most talented. Look and Rose Granger-Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy, constantly arguing and hexing each other, yet they get the best grades in their classes _and_ they were the first students I've ever had to produce a patronus charm in an actual form in the first lesson. I normally introduce the charm in fifth year, but them pick it up again in their sixth and seventh years, it's very difficult for students. Like it or not, they also have a good influence on their well behaved friends, Albus Potter and Lunette Tinker also managed to produce patronus charms. It even got Albus reading a book!" said Lupin brightly.

Stockett scowled at Lupin for taking them off the point. "So you're not going to punish Potter and Scamander?!" Stockett shouted.

Fairweather chuckled. "Not too harshly. I don't want them punished for such talent. I will write to their parents, making sure that they know that, despite breaking rules, each prank was intricately planned and required such a high leveled skill of magic. Professor Longbottom, as they are in your house I shall let you deal with their punishment."

Lunette and Albus, holding hands, caught up with Rose as they left the great hall. Scorpius grumpily traipsing after them, not wanting to get into another argument with Rose. The frogs had finally left the Slytherins alone and were making their way towards professor Stockett's office as a nice surprise for her later. Hufflepuff robes were flickering back to black, the Ravenclaw buckteeth had gone, Gryffindor bags were only making the occasional _mew_ sound of a kitten, but the Slytherins would continue to have red hair until the following day.

"Hey Rose, do you know who their accomplice was?" Lunette asked eagerly.

Rose shrugged and lied. "No, and I doubt they're tell me or anyone else for that matter."

"Oh, come on Rose." Albus groaned. "You must have _some_ idea as to who it could be."

Rose shook her head, "No sorry, I wish I did know though."

Lunette huffed but remained cheerful. "Rose you _must_ know who it is! Hugo and Lily sad that they saw you talking to James and Lorcan while they were planning their April Fools prank."

"Oh, that, I was telling them off for digging out the hidden room on the fourth floor. I almost fell in there the other day!"

Lunette nodded, Rose had told her that before. But Rose had only said that she _almost_ fell in, not that she had completely flopped to the bottom with Scorpius in tow. Scorpius had told Albus a similar story, excluding Rose. Albus sent a confused to Scorpius who only shrugged in reply.

"Oh, well I'll see you tomorrow Rose. Me and Al are off to the library." Lunette smiled and happily went off with Albus.

Rose closed her eyes and sighed with relief. When she opened them, she saw that Scorpius was leaning against the wall watching her, knowing but suspicious expression fixed on his face.

"What?" Rose snapped at him.

"So you _don't_ know who the accomplice was?" he raised his eyebrows.

"No, I don't." Rose said through gritted teeth.

Scorpius smiled knowingly, "There was an orange _fox_ firework that stole _your_ book and dropped it on _my_ head and you still can't work out who the accomplice is?" he raised his eyebrows. "They described them as the smartest person they know." He pushed himself off the wall and walked towards the Slytherin common room. He slowed down as he passed Rose and whispered in her ear. "I wonder who that could be?" His hand purposely brushed hers before Scorpius marched away.

Rose was left staring after him and then at her hand. She could still feel the warmth of his touch as he moved out of sight. She went back to her room in a daze, wondering whether Scorpius had meant to brush her hand and if it meant anything, and if she even wanted it to mean anything. Rose didn't notice the excited hype in her room between Phil, Mel and Anna.

"It was sooo cute! He just kind of looked me up and down and was like 'you're really hot, it's Mel isn't it?' he said it such a dreamy way. And all I could think was, 'MERLIN'S BEARD! HE KNOWS MY NAME!" Mel was squealing.

Phil scoffed, "Well he _should_ know your name! You're such a nice and pretty person!"

Anna rolled her eyes and spoke bitterly. "I wish Albus would do that to me."

The mention of Albus snapped Rose back to reality. She watched her roommates in confusion. Mel and Phil ignored Anna's grumpiness and continued blabbering on to one another.

"What's going on?" Rose asked with a yawn. Ever since Mel and Phil had stopped hanging around with her in pursuit of boyfriends, she had stopped caring what new thing they were squealing about. It was normally some dress or new hairstyle they had found.

To her surprise, Mel jumped onto Rose's bed.

"GRANT HATHAWAY ASKED ME OUT!" Mel shouted.

"Well, good for you. If you like him. Did you say yes?" Rose was already in her pajamas and was trying to get into her bed but MEl wouldn't get off.

"OF COURSE I SAID YES!" Mel shouted more, giving Rose a headache.

"Why? I always thought he was a bit of a prick." Rose grumbled, she really didn't care that much but she didn't think Mel deserved to go out with the popular, serial flirt that was Grant Hathaway. Rose thought Mel could do _so_ much better.

"BECAUSE HE'S SO HOT AND SO POPULAR AND HE ASKED _ME_ OUT!" Mel was too excited to notice Rose's unenthusiasm.

There was a knock on the door, Rose was glad of the excuse to get away from the very loud Mel. It was Lily at the door.

"Hey Lils-"

Lily opened the door wider and scowled at Mel. "Would you please shut up. Some of us have quidditch practise tomorrow." she gave a small smile which only Rose saw and then slammed the door.

Anna rolled her eyes. "Well she was rude."

Phil smiled. "You know, if you married Albus you would be related to her."

Anna raised her eyebrows. "If I married Albus, I'd make sure that we never saw his siblings again. Lily's so annoying and weirdly pretty and all the guys give her too much attention and James is a good for nothing prick who bullies people." she was referring to James's pranks.

Rose finally got into her bed as Mel moved. "Good for everyone that you won't be marrying Al then. Lily and James are some of the best people I know and they're very protective of each other and Al. They both like Lunette so you wouldn't get very far with Al anyway." Rose shrugged and fell asleep thinking about Scorpius's hand lightly brushing her own, before she heard Anna's comeback. Which wasn't that witty anyway so Rose wasn't missing much.

 **MAY**

"It's not looking good for Slytherin! Granger-Weasley just saved another goal for Gryffindor! The score is still 30:0 to Gryffindor! Oh Merlin, look at Malfoy's face! He looks really annoyed! Ha! Granger-Weasley is beating him at something again-"

"Cecil Pond, stay focussed on the game, petty rivalries do not matter at the moment!" Professor Nye warned the commentator.

Professor Longbottom leaned in and whispered to him. "I bet you're missing the old days when Merlin Jordan was commentator, huh?" he grinned.

Nye rolled his eyes. "Jordan was far worse. I'll give you that."

Lupin overheard and chuckled. "It adds a bit of character and charm to the game!"

"It certainly does." Longbottom grinned. "I remember Lee, Merlin's dad did the commentary, he just said what everyone was thinking. Everyone loved it, although perhaps not the Slytherin house."

"Slytherin have got the quaffle back! Gully passes to Malfoy, who narrowly misses the bludger sent by Scamander, Malfoy passes back to Gully. He's getting close to the goals! Can Granger-Weasley pull it off again? Gully throws it and- OH! His arm has been hit by a bludger sent by Abel-Roy! That threw off his aim and Potter gabs it! He passes to Weasley, who passes back to Potter, who passes to my sister, Pond I mean! Pond passes to- NO! Damn it Lucile! Why do you have to be so-"

"Mr Pond!" Nye angrily shouted

Cecil ignored him. "Malfoy grabs the quaffle and makes his way back up the pitch. He throws the it, oh, that's _definitely_ going to go in! BUT NO! Granger-Weasley on top form today as she only _just_ saves that goal! Wait, hang on a sec- ROME HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! THAT'S 150 POINTS AND GRYFFINDOR HAVE WON 180 TO NOTHING! Brilliant game! Slytherin didn't even stand a chance!"

Both teams landed as the crowds cheered loudly. The teams shook hands begrudgingly before leaving. When Scorpius reached Rose she just grinned smugly at him.

"Well done Weasel." Scorpius muttered, he tried to keep a straight face.

Despite himself, Rose's smug smile was making him want to smile too, but that could never happen, he couldn't smile in defeat against Gryffindor. Scorpius squeezed Rose's hand gently and lingered longer than he should have, before running to catch up with his team that had all left. And once again Rose was left staring after him, wonder what his touching actions meant, or if they even meant anything at all.

Suddenly her whole team surrounded her as they cheered.

"WE WON!" James and Lorcan continually shouted at one another until they reached the changing rooms. When there were no teachers around, Lorcan then shouted again. "PARTY AT GRYFFINDOR TOWER IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!"

Later that night James and Lorcan oversaw the decoration of the common room, various bunting and red and gold flowers were hung from the ceiling. The duo had somehow snuck firewhiskey and butterbeer past all the teachers, they were all laid out on small tables dotted around the room along with biscuits, liquorice wands and bowls the size of quaffles filled to the brim with Bertie Bot's every flavour beans.

As Rose entered though the fat lady portal, Lunette in tow, she nodded with approval.

"HEY ROSE!" Ben Rome bounced up to her with enthusiasm she had never seen in him before. "Hey! Awesome game! Try this!" he shoved a shot of firewhiskey in her hand before bouncing off again to talk to Lorcan.

Rose laughed and downed it it one. Lunette raised her eyebrows.

"What?" Rose was suspicious of the knowing look Lunette was giving her.

"Well, he completely ignored me and I'm the only one out of the two of us that has spoken to him in class." She shrugged.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing Rose, just that you might want to start paying more attention to him. You'd make a sweet couple."

Rose rolled her eyes and dragged Lunette further into the room so they could talk to Lily and Hugo. To their surprise, Albus burst through the door with his arm clutched in James's hand.

"Oi! We have our defeated Slytherin!" James cheered and Lorcan was the only one to cheer back. Most didn't hear him over the loud music.

Albus rolled his eyes and Rose heard him say to James, "Did you drag me here to humiliate me?"

James ruffled his little brothers hair and grinned at him. "Kind of. But mostly 'cause your girlfriend is here and I saw some twat in your year looking at her like a piece of meat. And I think she'd want you here."

"Thanks James."

James shrugged. "Or I invited you because Rose wouldn't leave me alone until I did."

Albus chuckled and rolled his eyes before moving over to where Rose was by the drinks table. "Hey."

"Al! Hi! Great that you're here."

Albus eyed the empty shot glass in Rose's hand. "How many have you had already?"

Rose shrugged. "Three, maybe. I don't know, Lunette was counting for me."

They both looked over to the fireplace where Lunette was looking annoyed and uncomfortable as Grant Hathaway was chatting her up. Albus growled and turned away from, he took the shot glass of of Rose and poured himself some firewhiskey.

"Why can't they just leave her alone?!" Albus grumbled.

"Leave it to me Al." Rose stumbled slightly as she made her way slowly over to Lunette.

"Oh, hello Grant, Lunette." Rose said in an overly friendly voice. "Oops, sorry my bad, am I interrupting something here?" She smiled a sickly sweet between Lunette and Grant. Her not so subtle sarcasm was aggravating Grant while it amused Lunette. "Look Grant, you've got to help me out here. I thought you were dating someone else."

Grant rolled his eyes.

"But I guess, I'm such a ditz, that I must be wrong." Rose let out a fake laugh. "I mean if you were currently dating someone I would remember." Her eyes suddenly turned serious as she glared at him. "Especially if we shared a dorm." She let out a sarcastic giggle again. "But then I'm such a ditz that I must be wrong. Unless you remember her name?"

He didn't answer. Grant just stood there looking unamused.

"No? Oh well, I guess I'm just a ditz." Rose sent a fake smile with glaring eyes at him. She quickly spun around to face Lunette. "So Lunette, I know you definitely have a boyfriend."

Lunette sighed. "Yeah, isn't Albus great." She looked over the crowd to see Albus staring daggers into the back of Grant's head. She tried to hide her giggle.

"Yeah, yeah, he is great." Rose turned back to Grant. "Lunettes dating my cousin, Albus. Funny that."

Grant looked incredibly awkward. Lunette still found it funny. Rose was laying on the sarcasm thick.

"Well, as well as being a ditz, and I know you're going to laugh at this one Grant. I'm pretty sure I heard Lunette here say to you at least four or five times to tell you to get lost because she couldn't care less about you and that she has a boyfriend."

"I don't think I actually said that I couldn't careless about him. Although that is correct." Lunette tipped her head sideways.

Rose winked at Lunette before turning back to Grant. "Well I guess I must just be deaf. Yeah, that must be right. I'm ditzy and deaf. I mean, I have to be wrong, otherwise there would be no reason as to why you were flirting with Lunette."

Grant huffed and rolled his eyes. "Heavy on sarcasm much?"

Rose winked at him. "I only save it for special occasions."

Grant began to walk away but he stopped turn back to Rose. "You won't tell Mel will you?" He seemed genuinely worried.

Rose had no sympathy. This wasn't the first time she had seen him flirting with other girls while he was in a relationship.

"I can't promise anything." She shrugged and Grant sulked away.

Once Grant was out of earshot, Lunette burst out laughing.

"Thanks Rose."

"Anytime." Rose grinned.

"You're a little bit tipsy aren't You?"

"Little bit."

Albus finally came over and wrapped an arm around Lunette's waist. Rose felt awkward so she swiftly moved on to talk to someone else.

"Oh! By the way Rose," Lunette shouted over the crowd. "Great work on saving that last goal, such a nail bitter."

Rose was scanning the room for Mel to see if she had seen what Grant had been up to. Mel liked him way to much to believe what Rose knew she had to tell her. Rose wasn't looking where she was going and ran straight into someone's chest. She looked up to see a grinning James.

"There's my favourite cousin! Rosie!"

His enthusiasm made her laugh.

"There's jus' one problem I've got with you."

"And what's that?"

"I've known you all my life and I've never seen you even ride a broom, then suddenly BAM!" James was holding a shot of Firewhiskey which spilled slightly on Rose's shoulder. "You try out at the start of the year and you become the best Keeper I've ever had on my team!"

"And that makes me you favourite cousin?"

"Yes, yes it does. And I love you, have I ever told you that? I love you my dear little cousin." James leant on Rose's shoulder and ruffled her hair. He giggled. "Your hair is sooooo fluffy. You know what?! Your dad will be proud to have a daughter who can rival his abilities as a Keeper, I'm going to write to him so he can be jealous that he never saw the game!"

Rose smiled and shook her head. "Just promise me you won't write to him until tomorrow when hopefully you'll be a little more sober."

James didn't answer as someone else had leant on Rose's other shoulder and shouted in her ear.

"Rose!" It was Lorcan. "Great work out there! I don't think any quidditch captain could've had a better Keeper."

James lifted his shot of Firewhiskey and said. "Too true!" Before downing what was left of it in one.

"Amazing work Weasley!" Lorcan laughed then gently grabbed Rose by the jaw and gave her a quick kiss on the mouth. He aimed for the mouth but mostly got the cheek.

Rose took a step back and laughed at Lorcan, he was just as drunk as James.

"Hey! Don't hit on my cousin!" James seemed to sober up a little bit as he grasped what his best friend had done.

"Woah, woah. Not hitting on her mate, me and little Rose are friends! We're cool, we're cool."

Rose laughed as the two boys linked arms and skipped around the common room singing the school song to the tune of the English national anthem, they kept on getting confused with the words. She knew Lorcan had meant nothing by the surprise kiss and she felt nothing but friendship for him. Across the room she saw Lily quickly looking away from what had happened.

' _Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,_

 _Teach us something please,_

 _Whether we be old and bald_

 _Or young with scabby knees,_

 _Our heads could do with filling_

 _With some interesting stuff,_

 _For now they're bare and full of air,_

 _Dead flies and bits of fluff,_

 _So teach us things worth knowing,_

 _Bring back what we've forgot,_

 _Just do your best, we'll do the rest,_

 _And learn until our brains all rot.'_

Rose strutted off outside the common room. She decided to go to the owlery as it was her favourite night time walk when she she couldn't sleep. There she found Scorpius, he was leaning on the windowsill and staring at the stars.

Turned he when heard someone then rolled his eyes when he saw that it was Rose.

"Come to rub your victory in my face?" He guessed. "Because thanks to your victory today, Slytherin have no chance of winning the quidditch cup. Even if we do beat Hufflepuff in the next match."

Rose took a deep breathe. "Well maybe originally I did but then I saw your melancholy little face and I remembered 'hey! We used to be friends'!"

Scorpius's eyes narrowed. "Are you tipsy?"

Rose held her thumb and index finger about an inch apart and lifted it to her eye. "Just a little bit. But hey! I won so I'm allowed to!"

"You're underage."

"And you're making me feel guilty." Rose said grumpily. "You're a bad friend."

Scorpius sighed. "We're not friends."

"And saying that makes you an even worse friend!" Rose said it so matter of factly that Scorpius couldn't help but chuckle.

"I think a little bit of alcohol makes you more inclined to tell the truth."

"The truth isn't always good. Like, if James told the truth, he and Lorcan would always be in detention. And if Lunette told the complete truth, then Al would know that she was in love with him and that might freak him out because we're like, only sixteen years old.-"

"Seventeen."

"Don't interrupt. Because if I told the truth I would say that I like hexing and arguing with you in the corridors because you were my friend and now arguing is the only time I can get to know you better, like friends do." Rose smiled not knowing what she had just said. She suddenly frowned and but her hand on her forehead, "ah, headache. Well, cheerio Mr Scorpius." She did a fake salute and skipped down the stairs.

Scorpius stared in a stunned silence at where Rose had been standing. Only the sound of her tripping at the bottom of the stairs brought him back to the present. He ran down the help her back on her feet. Rose rambled on about the quidditch game as Scorpius walked with her back to the castle, he didn't want her falling over again. They were close to the Gryffindor common room when Scorpius noticed Rose's cousin Roxanne coming their way.

Scorpius quickly pulled Rose into an empty classroom .

"What are you doing?" Rose demanded, she was feeling like was a little bit back to her usual self.

"Your cousin was there, no one can see us together unless we're fighting."

Rose's eyes narrowed. "So you don't tell anyone about our occasional conversations where we are completely ourselves and we forget that he hate each other?"

"Yes, nobody knows. Not even Albus. Do you tell people?"

"If I don't tell Lily something, she somehow knows and I end up telling her because she asks and I'm unable to lie to her. I've never told her, but she could probably guess."

"What about our f-" Scorpius stopped. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer or to even open up the conversation about their first kiss.

Rose's ears turned red and she looked away from him.

"I'm tired, kicking your butt in quidditch today really took it out of me. And I need to be ready to kick your butt again tomorrow." Rose yawned then winked. "I'm off to bed."

"I'll see you tomorrow in the corridor." Scorpius watched her clumsily open the door.

"Yep, I'm thinking you would look good with red hair and red robes. Gryffindor deserves his colours to be forced upon every student, especially after our spectacular victory today." She left again and headed straight for bed.

When she got back the common room, the noise had died down a bit. Lorcan and James were still singing and Lunette and Albus were still chatting away together. Rose sighed and made her way to bed. The next morning was going to bring them all a headache.

Rose was right. The next morning the common room was empty. It was a Sunday so no one had to be awake. When Rose trudged down the stairs from her room at 10am, she thought she was all alone. And she slumped in an armchair.

"What?" someone grumbled from behind the chair.

Rose was startled, she had never stood up so quickly in her life. She took out her wand and circled the chair, to find Ben Rome laying on the floor, his arm raised to block out the sun shining on his face.

"Oh, Rose it's you. Hi."

Rose smiled down at the mess that was Ben. His ruffled hair made her realise how handsome he actually was. "Hey Rome, I'm guessing you didn't go to bed."

He nodded and sat up. "I woke up on the chair over there," he pointed to the opposite side of the room. "But the sun was in my eyes so I moved." he rested his hand in his lap and the sun shone in his eyes again. His squinting made Rose smile more. "I forgot the sun moved too."

"How much did you drink?"

"Not that much, I'm just a lightweight."

Rose nodded and sat beside him. "I'm the same, that's why I went to bed. I didn't fancy passing out on a chair and getting things written on my forehead."

Ben panicked and touched his forehead as if to feel any pen marks. He stopped instantly when Rose laughed at him.

He rolled his eyes. "Well, that's one way of waking someone up." he chuckled. "Call me Ben by the way, my last name just reminds me that I have a little brother. And besides, we're teammates now. We need to be friends." he put his hand gently on her shoulder and squeezed. "You're pretty cool Rose and you were awesome yesterday."

Rose's ears turned red, he felt herself really liking this guy. "Thanks Ben, you were pretty good yourself."

"Ugh, I should go to bed." Ben grumbled and used the back of the armchair to push himself up. "I'll see you around."

Rose spent the rest of the day revising in the library, the exams were coming up soon and she felt underprepared. She didn't notice Scorpius who sat on the opposite side of the room and kept on getting distracted by the sight of Rose. He wondered if she remembered calling him her friend the night before.

'If I fail these exams,' Scorpius thought as he pushed himself to stop looking at Rose, 'it'll be all her fault. Stupid Weasley, too distracting for her own good. She's so annoying and hard working.' he looked up again to see her still pouring over her books. 'Why hasn't she noticed me yet? She could at least send an annoying jinx of some sort. Why hasn't she noticed me?' he forced himself back to looking at his notes. 'No, I shouldn't be thinking that. It's my fault I get distracted.' he then lied to himself to keep concentration. 'It's not like I want her to notice me. I don't even care about Rose.'

 **JUNE**

The exam period was finally over at the very beginning of June and the students had time to breath before the final quidditch match of the year. It was postponed due to someone in the Ministry of Magic messing up the exam timetables. The Slytherin vs Hufflepuff match finally arrived. As Gryffindor had already won every game they played with flying colours, Hufflepuff and Slytherin were simply playing for pride... and second place.

The game started out as usual, each side quickly gained 30 points each. Rose chuckled when she saw Albus across the pitch holding a sign with the names Scorpius and Lunette on it written in their house colours. Al wasn't choosing sides, he was just supporting his best friend and his girlfriend. Although Rose had the slight suspicion that Scorpius had tampered with the poster without Albus's knowing as Scorpius's name kept on flashing brightly.

Rose watched Lunette soar up above the players and study every inch of air within the pitch as she scanned for the snitch. The Slytherin seeker took the approach of circling the pitch too quickly, Rose knew that there was no way Lunette's method would lose to the Slytherins.

Suddenly a jerking movement towards the end of the pitch and away from the quaffle, caught Rose's eye. Scorpius's broom seemed to trying to throw him off. No one else seemed to have noticed as the Hufflepuff chasers scored another goal. The broom succeeded and Rose watched as Scorpius dangled unnoticed from his broom. Rose was confused, he was normally such a good flyer. She heard a faint giggle behind her, someone else must have noticed him too. Without warning Scorpius lost grip of his broom and thumped to the ground. The laughing grew louder and more malicious, Rose was sure that someone in the crowd was doing this to Scorpius.

Rose's heart stopped as she saw him lying helpless on the floor. "Malfoy..." she muttered in concern. He wasn't even trying to get up. Rose heard the laughter again, this time she turned around to hear that it was coming from further up in the stalls, Daniel Leyton and Finley Norwood were taking delight sending hexes repeatedly at Scorpius who was motionless. Even from a distance she could see the hundreds of yellow boils covering his limbs. She growled and ran as fast as she could down to the pitch, pushing the two idiots over on her way down.

"PROFESSOR STOCKETT!" Rose shouted with all her might as soon as she reached the pitch. "STOP THE GAME!"

"WEASLEY GET BACK!" Stockett shouted back.

Rose glared and her nostrils flared. She stormed over to Scorpius who had not shown any signs of movement. Just as Rose predicted, Stockett was always ready to tell her off so she followed her. Only then did Stockett notice the injured student.

Rose knelt beside Scorpius and saw bone sticking out from his leg and his arms were covered in bruises and boils and was almost flat.

"Malfoy!" Rose shouted at his face. "Malfoy!" her hands trembled. He didn't answer. Rose felt lost, she looked up to see Stockett's panicked and embarrassed face. "Do something! You're the teacher!"

Stockett cleared her throat and used the sonorus charm. "THE GAME IS CANCELLED. EVERYONE DISMOUNT CALMLY. ALL STUDENTS MUST GO STRAIGHT BACK TO THEIR COMMON ROOMS." she waved over the nurse then squatted down to inspect Scorpius herself.

Rose's voice shook and was barely audible over the grumbles of the students leaving. "I think he's unconscious professor."

The nurse appeared and shook her head at the sight of Scorpius. "The poor boy's unconscious." she echoed Rose's fear. "We need to get him to the hospital wing quickly. Those boils on his arms are crushing him." she quickly instructed the teachers that were there to help.

Rose followed behind, never taking her eyes off of Scorpius's painful and unconscious face. Albus and Lunette had noticed Scorpius's absence from the Slytherin team and held back behind the crowd. Then they spotted Rose too.

"Rose!" Albus shouted and ran to her. "What's going on?"

"You're so pale Rose! What's happened?!" Lunette asked hurriedly.

Rose pointed in front. "He, he, fell of his broom and now he's been injured. They're taking him to the hospital wing."

Albus and Lunette quickly ran after the teachers levitating Scorpius. Rose told herself to calm down and continued at a slower pace. She didn't understand why she felt so scared at the thought of Scorpius being properly hurt, and she didn't want to think about why. That could wait until after he was better.

Once Scorpius was settled in a bed and the majority of teachers had left, Lunette and Albus burst in and rushed to his side.

"Will he be ok?" Lunette and Albus asked at the same time.

"Eventually, yes." The busy nurse said bluntly wishing that they would leave her to it.

"Eventually?!" Albus was frightened for his friend.

The nurse stopped what she was doing, huffed and spun around. "Yes, eventually. He's unconscious for now, but I shall mend that in a moment. I'll have to give young Malfoy a potion which will make him, shall I say, a bit sensitive-"

"What? What do you mean?"

"Mr Potter! Will you _please_ let me finish! I understand the concern for your friend but if you keep interrupting me I shan't be able to get on."

"Sorry." Albus muttered, his concerned eyes looking at a very bruised and battered Scorpius.

"He shall be emotional is all I'm saying. Even the slightest thing would make him angry or upset. Which shan't be a help to myself at all, his leg and arm are beyond broken." she tutted. "Completely crushed by those heavy boils. Only skelli-grow can help him now, growing back bones is no pleasant business. And I can remove some of those boils while he's unconscious, but most will have to wait until _after_ he's woken up. Poor boy will be in so much pain tonight. And _that_ is why he shall be an emotional wreck." she then tried to get back to work while grumbling. "Bloody side effects to everything. I'm either going to have an angry boy screaming at me because of the pain or the most pitiful crying boy."

Albus grimaced. He remembered his father telling him all about skelli-grow.

"And now Mr Potter, Miss Tinker, I must ask you to leave, he shall be awake in a couple of hours and the less worried faces surrounding him the better. Malfoy's in for a tough night."

"But can't I-" Albus stuttered.

"No! Leave now and I shall let you visit him tomorrow afternoon, _if_ he's improved."

Lunette took hold of Albus's arm. "Come one Al, we'll see him tomorrow. There's nothing we can do for Scorp now, and he's in good hands."

Once out of the hospital Albus sighed, he left Lunette flop against the wall and start shaking. He lifted a piece of hair away from her face and saw that she was crying.

"Lunette, wha-"

"Why didn't I notice?! Al, I was on the pitch! He's my best friend too! Why didn't I notice that he was unconscious and hurt?! I'm a terrible person and friend! And now he's going to be emotional and in pain all night! What if I could've helped?! He has to spend the night alone and in pain!"

Little did they know that Rose was listening just around the corner.

"Hey, Lunette, it's not your fault at all. It's not your job to keep an eye on him during the game, your job was to find the snitch. You cannot blame yourself for this."

Lunette sniffed. "But why did Rose notice? No one else in the entire school noticed anything was up until she stormed onto that pitch."

Albus wrapped an arm around her and they began walking slowly to the great hall. "Yeah, well sometimes I think that they don't hate each other as much they'd like us to think that they do."

"What? So you think that they're really-"

"No. But sometimes, not very often, I get the feeling that they like being around each other. But then they go back to arguing and I'm almost sure I'm wrong."

After hearing that, Rose knew that she definitely had to be seen going down to dinner and feeling fine. But she couldn't resist the urge to peek her head through the door and catch a glimpse of Scorpius.

Rose didn't say much at dinner, but then that wasn't wholly unusual. Lily frowned and asked, "Are you feeling alright Rose?"

Rose eyed her suspiciously. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"Oh, well that thing with Malfoy was a bit of a shock."

Rose shrugged. "I think he's in the hospital wing or something. You're best asking Al or Lunette, I think I saw them go that way earlier."

Lily studied Rose for a moment, she knew something was wrong but Rose wasn't telling. So she let it drop with the assumption that Rose couldn't keep a secret from Lily for long. Yet Lily had no idea how many secrets Rose had successfully kept from her.

Late that night, Rose snuck out of bed and made her way soundlessly to the hospital wing. Before she even opened the door, the heart wrenching sound of sobbing reached her ears.

"Now Mr Malfoy, that Skelli-grow is going to hurt but you need it. I removed most of the boils so that the bone can get stronger, although those scars will remain for a few weeks. The potion I gave you earlier is mostly what is making you cry. I understand you are confused by the tears. Although, it normally makes people angry, and I certainly did not give you enough for this many tears. Hmm, I shall have to write this down. Now, shout for me if you need anything, I'm going to bed."

Rose waited until she heard the nurse leave and then carefully opened the door. Scorpius was facing away from her as she sat on the end of his bed. He was shaking as he sobbed, his arm and leg were still limp covered in raw circular scars, blood trickled from one or two of them occasionally. Rose didn't know what to say, he was in so much pain and she felt helpless.

"Weasley?" he whispered in surprise.

Rose gave a faint smile. He could see the concern in her eyes. He felt pathetic.

"Why are you here?" he asked with a sniff.

Rose opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She only took hold of his hand that had bones in it and squeezed gently. More tears streamed down his face, Rose took a tissue out of her pocket and wiped them away.

"It's going to be ok." She whispered softly to him and shuffled closer. "It's ok, you'll be fine tomorrow."

"I'm in so much pain." Scorpius croaked.

"Shhh, I know, just try to sleep. No more tears, just rest."

"Don't leave." Scorpius panicked and his arm jerked, relieving more blood to trail out of some of the boil scars.

"I won't, I'm here. You're going to be ok. A lot of people are worried about you so you need to get some rest. Tomorrow you can show them that you're ok." she took an already bloody cloth off the table beside him and dabbed his bleeding arm gently.

"Please don't leave me alone here." Scorpius held her hand tightly.

"I won't, I promise. I'm here and I won't leave you alone."

Albus was worried about Scorpius, so late that night he sneaked up to the hospital wing. As he opened the door, the sight of Rose startled him. She was comforting Scorpius. Albus had never seen Scorpius cry and yet there hes was, crying with his enemy comforting him. Albus backed out of the room slowly before either had noticed him, Albus was back in his bed.

Albus had the feeling that he had seen something that no one was supposed to know about. He decided that perhaps it was a secret that he should even keep from Lunette. 'Unless of course the circumstance is urgent and I have to tell for the sake of Scorp and Rose. Or if she directly asks. 'Or if those two idiots do actually end up together.'

By the last week of school, Scorpius was back to his usual self and Rose had lost the seemingly permanent concerned look from her eyes. A look which only Albus and Lily noticed, yet they said nothing.

One saturday morning, after breakfast, Leyton and Norwood were laughing in hushed tones in the courtyard together. Rose spotted them and was instantly angry. She knew that it was them who had injured Scorpius and it was their fault that Scorpius had cried so much.

Revenge was going to be sweet.

" _Flipendo._ " she muttered. Both Leyton and Norwood fell off the bench. " _Petrificus totalus._ " Both the boys were unable to move. Using the levitation charm, she moved them to an empty and darkened corner. She could see the fear in their eyes. Both knew what Rose was capable of when she was angry.

"Listen, you foul loathsome gargoyles." Rose grit her teeth. "I saw you at the quidditch match and you're going to pay for injuring another student."

She poked them each harshly on the nose with her wand and spoke clearly. " _Engorgio._ " Their noses doubled in size, she did the same to their ears. Their heads were drooping under the weight. She then removed the hair of their heads, gave them each a rat's tail and acne to cover the majority of their faces.

"Now, you will go to the great hall and appologise to Malfoy, once I am satisfied with your humiliation I will reverse the hexes. Are we clear?" She undid the spell keeping them frozen and they nodded as best as they could before running to the hall.

She followed quietly and watched with amusement as Leyton and Norwood could barely get a word out to appologise to the baffled Scorpius. Every student left in the hall was watching. Their apology was short, as expected, and they sprinted back to the courtyard where Rose undid the hexes. She knew that a simply apology wasn't nearly enough to compensate how much pain they put Scorpius through, but it was all that she could do for him.

"Now, if you tell _anyone_ that it was me who forced you to do this, I will do twice as bad to you and refuse to reverse any of it. Understood?"

All Leyton and Norwood did was nod again and they ran away to their rooms.

"Wasn't that bullying Rose?" a voice sounded from behind her.

Rose slowly turned, she wasn't surprised to see Longbottom there. "I'd prefer to call it justice uncle Nev- professor Longbottom."

Longbottom smiled and nodded slowly. "I would give you detention but we've only got a week left until we all go home so there wouldn't be much of a point."

"I know sir."

"But I could give you detention."

"I know sir, and I would deserve it. But a detention at this point in the year won't teach me anything." Rose sat down on the nearest bench and sighed. "I _may_ have overreacted."

"May have?"

"Look, sir, what they did was-"

"I've guessed what they have done. And again, it would be pointless to give them detentions now. Of course they injured a student and put them in a hospital wing, whereas you reversed the hexes you used in return for their humiliation." Longbottom sat beside her. "Why did you do it Rose?"

"Justice, they-"

"No. No, it would be simply for justice if it was for a random student. It would be revenge if it was for a friend, but this seemed more malicious."

Rose shrugged. "It's been a confusing year."

"Emotionally confusing?"

Rose nodded.

"Things don't get resolved by bottling them up."

"I know uncle Neville, but that's the way it has to be."

"It doesn't Rose, I care about you and I want you to be happy."

"I am happy, sometimes. But no one can be happy all the time." Rose stood, before she left she turned around again. "I shouldn't have overreacted, I know what I did wasn't the best way to handle things. And if it was so late in the school year, I would be willing to accept any punishment that came my way, but as it is-"

"You're very mature for your age Rose, I'm proud of you. And if your parents were to ever hear of this," he quickly spoke as he saw the panic in Rose's eyes. "Which they won't, they would be proud too. Well, proud eventually. You would still get an earful from your mother."

"So they won't hear about this?"

"No."

"Thank you. "

 **TRAIN HOME**

Albus, Lunette and Scorpius sat in a compartment together, enjoying each other's company before Scorpius had to do his prefect rounds and before the summer when they would barely see each other. Lunette was to go back to France for a few weeks to see her grandparents, not something she was thrilled about. And Scorpius would be cooped up in the library at home until he was dragged to Belgium with Lloyd Parkinson for a week only so that he could go back home afterwards and hide in the library again. The only thing Scorpius ever had to look forward to during the summer holidays was the week he would spend with the Potters at Hunstanton beach, but he wasn't sure if he would be invited this year as Lunette was a big part of Albus's life. Scorpius knew that James and Lily would rather have Lunette on holiday with them than himself anyday.

Albus wrapped one arm around Lunette as she snuggled in closer to him. Scorpius rolled his eyes and stared out of the window.

Lunette sighed. "It's been a fun year hasn't it?" she said with a soft smile.

Albus chuckled. "It has, but I'm glad it's over and I've got you." he leaned down and kissed her. "What do you think Scorp?"

Scorpius thought for a moment, he thought about himself and Rose standing up for Lunette and their mutual concern for Albus brought them to civilised conversations. He remembered learning about the amortia potion, and how it smelled of Rose, of rain, new parchment and freshly cut grass. He remembered how she had run out of the class and not returned, he dared not to assume what or who she had smelled. He thought about Rose's birthday and how she was obviously have the worst day ever, and he had the confusing feeling of heartache. He had felt her pain and wanted to take it away. Passing thoughts popped up of Rose's annoyed face as he teased her in front of Wesely McLaggen, the various muggle books and poem quotes that delighted one another when recognised. A few kisses on New Years. Taking the full weight of a nasty prank so that she wasn't humiliated, getting in trouble anyway. Rose's willingness to help and intuition not to tease when he told her of his fears when they were trapped on the fourth floor. And finally the faint image of her worried face before he passed out on the quidditch pitch. He wasn't sure if he had seen her again that night or if he had been imagining it. The nurse had given him some weird potion, he just remembered crying a lot and a comforting voice telling him that they wouldn't leave. Those moments and the ones full of petty arguments, hurt his head. Scorpius felt as though he could not say for certain whether or not he hated Rose anymore.

"I'd say it's been a confusing year."

At that moment, Rose walked passed the compartment. Scorpius spotted her and quickly turned away to look out the window again. Scorpius's reaction and the fleeting mass of red hair, made Lunette aware of her best friend.

"Hey! Rose!" Lunette called her in.

Rose smiled at Lunette and Albus as she entered, on seeing Scorpius she simply grit her teeth and didn't acknowledge him.

"Hey guys, I was just talking to Katie Webb, she's looking after my trunk while I do prefect round. I think Dom is feeling a bit down, her last chance to use the authority of head girl."

"Well tell her I said hi." said Al

"Yeah, me too. And tell her that she's a fierce head girl that I am proud to call a Hufflepuff." Lunette grinned.

"How do you think this year has gone?" Albus asked curiously.

Rose's eyes flickered to look at Scorpius before she took in a long shaky breath, then answered. "It's, umm, it's been confusing." she nodded.

Scorpius looked at her in surprise, her ears turned red and she left quickly.

Albus laughed. "Too bad you guys are enemies, you're so alike." he said to Scorpius.

Lunette slowly sat up and looked suspiciously at Scorpius. He could feel her trying to work out what he was thinking. Scorpius quickly stood and muttered an excuse about needing the loo before he went to do prefect duty.

 **SUMMER HOLIDAYS**

Of course Scorpius was invited to go to Hunstanton for a week with the Potters, much to his delight. The dates, however, conflicted with the week that the Malfoys were to go to Belgium. Scorpius knew that he would have to do the best sucking up and arguing than he'd ever done in his life to get out of going to Belgium.

His mother was fine with him not going with them. His father, on the other hand, was not. And Draco was not a force to be reckoned with. But Scorpius had to try.

"Dad, you know that I don't get along with Lloyd. He's a stuck up, arrogant prick-"

"Watch your language young man." Draco warned as he turned another page in his newspaper.

"We just don't see eye to eye. For example, I'm a prefect who was given the role due to my responsibility and high grades, he's a student given the prefect role to keep an eye on him and is repeatedly threatened with expulsion."

"This discussion is over." Draco folded his newspaper neatly and made his way to his parent's sitting room.

Astoria Malfoy stopped him on his way and led him into the empty dining room.

"Draco, he is not coming with us." she said sternly.

"Yes he-"

"No he's not." she said more softly. "He has a friend that he treats like a brother. They rarely see each other during the summer holidays because your parents are not inclined to like the Potters-"

"Oh, so it's _my_ fault."

"Do not interrupt me. I am not blaming you for that, but I am saying that we should give him some freedom. He is seventeen now, he's old enough. I know we can't give him everything he wants or he'll turn out like a spoiled brat, but I believe, despite your parent's influence, he's grown up to be a sensible young man. Let's not turn him against us now. And," she sighed, "I think the Potter boy is the closest Scorpius has to a brother or a cousin, Albus is family to Scorpius."

"I understand. But I'm not thrilled. You can tell him that-"

"No, _you_ can tell him."

"Wh-"

"You need to talk to him more often. Draco, this is the first time you have spoken to him properly in months! Be open and honest for once, he's not going to live here forever." She kissed his cheek and returned to her study.

Draco found Scorpius in the library as usual, he was sitting on the windowsill. His son was stuck in a book and did not notice his father's arrival. Draco had to clear his throat twice just to get eye contact.

"Oh, hello." Scorpius was melancholy. 'If Dad is here, it must mean I have to go to Belgium.' Scorpius was already composing a letter to send to Albus in his head as Draco settled down in the nearest chair and began talking.

"Scorpius, your mother made me realise something about our family trips. The truth is, I don't want to go either. But we have to, it is tradition and the Parkinson's are crafty and manipulative in the wizarding world. How else do you think the young boy is still in school? They have connections, and none of them good. Scorpius, with you in Belgium with us, I am always able to use you as an excuse not to go anywhere or do anything with them. I simply say that you are travel sick or that you wanted to spend an entire day just with immediate family, it seems selfish I know, but your mother had always appreciated it. When she tries to use you as an excuse, the Parkinson's see right through it. I guess they do not believe me capable of caring enough about my own family's interests, to lie for you. They would be wrong, yet it is understandable. I know that it is a family holiday and, as your father, I should want you there. But we all hate it."

"Well, I do love Belgium. It's a beautiful country. It's just-"

"The people we go there with. I know. Your mother made me see that perhaps you think of Potter's boy as family too."

Scorpius nodded. "He's like my brother."

"Then spend time with your other family this year."

Scorpius felt a twinge of guilt. "Well, I guess I could come to Belgium with you and mum-"

"No, you have obviously argued your point well and sensibly enough to your mother. You're not a little boy anymore." Draco patted his son on the shoulder and stood to leave.

"Well maybe we could do something as a family as soon as we all get back." Scorpius quickly spoke up, feeling awkward around his father. "It isn't that I don't want to spend time with you and mum-"

"I think we can manage that." Draco nodded and left.

Scorpius was confused. He was happy to be allowed to go with the Potters, and he was even happier not to be dragged to Belgium. But he always found it awkward and too formal talking to his father, like talking to a teacher you don't know very well. Scorpius shrugged and went to his room to write to Albus.

...

The night Scorpius arrived home after going camping with the Potters was the night before Hogwarts letters arrived. Scorpius was so tired that he fell right to sleep without a thought of his exam results.

Rose, on the other hand, did not sleep a wink. Worrying kept her up all night practising basics spells that she had already mastered in first and second year.


	7. Chapter 7 SEVENTH YEAR

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE LAST CHAPTER, I KNOW IT TOOK A LONG TIME, I'VE BEEN AT UNI FOR THE PAST COUPLE OF YEARS. AND I'VE BEEN WORKING ON THIS FOR A LONG TIME.

EVERYTHING IS FROM THE WONDERFUL MIND OF J. , I HAVE BORROWED SOME OF THE NAMES OFF OF MY FRIENDS, THEY ARE NOT LIKE THIS IN REAL LIFE, BUT THEY'RE NAMES ARE A BRILLIANT MIX OF NORMAL AND WEIRD, SO I THOUGHT, WHY NOT? I HOPE YOU ENJOY CHAPTER 7. IT'S A LOT LONGER THAN PREVIOUS CHAPTERS WHICH IS ANOTHER REASON WHY IT TOOK SO LONG.

 **SEVENTH YEAR. 25 YEARS LATER**

 **SUMMER HOLIDAYS BEFORE**

Rose had not slept a wink the night before exam results came via post. Rose was not a morning person, she was even worse when that morning was preceded by no sleep.

Rose and Hugo had just received their letters from Hogwarts. Rose was would start her N.E. if she had passed the exams. Hugo excitedly opened his exam results to see that he would be able to drop potions, as he only just passed but that still wasn't enough for the professor to allow him to continue it, and Hugo would be able to continue the rest of his subjects. He was very happy that he achieved the highest grade for muggle studies. An O for outstanding. Hermione and Ron were very proud of their son.

"Oh, a postcard from your brother Charlie." Hermione smiled and passed it over to Ron.

"He's still loving it in Romania." Ron said after reading a few lines. "Apparently all his apprentices love him, but they have to compete with the dragons to get any attention from him." he laughed.

"Good for him," Hermione nodded, "I guess he won't be coming home for a long time."

"Yeah, I think mum must've gotten a postcard or letter from him today too. So have you got time to visit them with us?" He asked Hermione.

"I've always got time for family. Besides, they'll want to know about exam results!" she hugged Hugo with pride and kissed Ron on the cheek before going back to sifting through more of the letters. She found Rose's letter from Hogwarts and slid it across the table. "I'm sure you've done wonderfully." she said with a reassuring smile.

Rose sleepily picked up her letter while trying not the snooze in her cereal. She looked at her grades and managed a smile, she got an O in all her exams except Ancient Runes were she received an E for exceeds expectations. Although she had been expecting that, no one got higher than an E in that class. With the exception of her cousin Lucy.

Her letter was heavier than usual.

Rose handed the letter with her grades on it to her parents who were just as proud of her as they were of Hugo.

"This is great Rosie!" Ron ruffled his tired daughter's hair, but she didn't notice.

Hermione hugged her as she stood to get another cup of tea.

Rose opened the next piece of parchment in the envelope, it was a letter explaining that there would be apparition lessons later on in the year and that it would cost 12 Galleons, if they hadn't passed the test in the previous year or had been too young. She had been the right age last year and so passed the apparition test the second time. Rose stood and decided she should get back to bed, she hadn't slept in 24 hours. She left her letter on the breakfast table and trudged away upstairs, she could hear her family talking.

"Is she ok? She left her letter down here, I wonder if she's not happy with her Ancient Runes grade?" Ron muttered out loud.

Rose couldn't be bothered to go back to the kitchen and explain that she was happy with the grade but was just really tired and annoyed with herself for staying up all night worrying about nothing.

"ROSE MINERVA GRANGER-WEASLEY!" Hermione shouted from the kitchen.

Rose rolled her eyes, she had just gotten under the duvet covers and hit the pillow. Rose groaned, her mum must have been annoyed because Rose had left her dirty cereal bowl on the table and left her letter just laying about. Hermione liked a clean kitchen.

"YOUNG LADY GET DOWN HERE NOW!" Hermione shouted again, although Rose could not help but notice that her mum did not sound angry at all, more frantic and excited.

'Maybe the fact that both me and Hugo got good grades outweighs the fact that I didn't clean up after breakfast.' Rose thought to herself as she threw the covers off and slowly stood up.

"ROSIE HURRY UP!" Ron seemed to squeal.

"What?" Rose groaned as she slumped in the nearest chair in the kitchen. Her entire family stared at her eagerly, something that annoyed her so early in the morning. Her bowl had been cleared away for her and Rose was now very confused. "Why are you lot practically beaming?"

Hugo grinned and slid Rose's letter over to her. Rose shook the envelope upside-down and a badge fell out along with another piece of parchment which she had not noticed before. Rose sluggishly open the letter and began reading,

 _Dear Miss Rose Granger-Weasley,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have been chosen to be this year's Head Girl. You have been chosen..._

Rose felt her eyes drooping, she yawned and thought: 'Head Girl, how nice. Good for her. Although I was kind of hoping-'

Rose's late reaction interrupted her own thoughts. Rose suddenly sat up and toppled backward off her chair. She jumped up and was alert and awake. Hugo was now laughing at her, so was Ron but Hermione had never been so proud in her life. Hermione was close to tears.

"He-h-head G-girl?" Rose let out in a stuttered whisper. She picked up the red and gold badge that lay next to her empty envelope. Rose ran around the kitchen giving each member of her family a hug. "I"M HEAD GIRL! I"M HEAD GIRL! ME! LITTLE ME IS HEAD GIRL!" She couldn't help but shout and hug each of them.

"Oh Rosie! Well done!" Ron gave his daughter an enormous hug.

"Well done." Hugo begrudgingly returned Rose's hug even though he was extremely proud of her.

"I have to tell Albus!" Rose jumped up and down before grabbing a handful of floo powder and disappearing.

Hugo frowned with confusion then turned to his parents who were still smiling. "Did she just leave the house in her pyjamas?"

The Potters were having a relaxing morning, congratulating Albus and Lily on passing their exams and James for getting another job interview, while eating breakfast quietly when Rose, a wearing a dressing gown, chequered green pyjama bottoms and an oversized grey tshirt that had an image of four sheep wearing wellies and holding umbrellas and it said 'Great British Weather', burst into their living room through the floo network.

"I'M HEAD GIRL!" She squealed.

Once the Potters understood what was going on, they all excitedly hugged Rose before she disappeared again into the floo network to visit the rest of her family.

The Burrow was her last stop and her grandparents were particularly proud, and Rose even stayed with the three of them long enough to have a second breakfast. When Rose was finally home, she dressed and wrote to Lunette announcing she had big news and asked if she could floo over to their houses. Instead Hermione said it would be nicer if Lunette just came over to spend the day with Rose at their house. They could even go up to the muggle town to hang out.

However, before Lunette arrived, Hermione had to remind her daughter of a little thing called common sense.

"Funny how it's not so common." Hugo chuckled as his mum calmed down an excited Rose.

"Not a helpful comment Hugo." Hermione sighed.

Hugo didn't care, he just laughed again and slipped off to his room.

"Now, how about actually reading the rest of the letter first? Probably some useful information in there, otherwise Headmaster Fairweather would not have sent it. Secondly, where is your head girl badge?"

Rose's grin dropped into an annoyed expression. "I left it at the Burrow." She quickly stood up from the sofa but Hermione stopped her.

"Your dad is going now, I'll just tell him to pick it up on his way back." Hermione then spoke sternly, "Now, sit, relax and read the rest of the letter." She turned around and walked into the kitchen. "Ronald! Can you pick up Rosie's badge from your parents house?" she shouted upstairs. Before waiting for an answer Hermione quickly ducked back into the living room, hugged Rose and planted a kiss on her forehead. "I'm so proud of you. Well done. You've worked really hard for this."

Rose squeezed Hermione tightly. "Thanks mum."

"Oh, one last thing, perhaps you should think about changing out of your pyjamas before your friend comes."

When Hermione left the room, Rose opened her letter and read from where she had left off.

... _You have been chosen due to your academic achievement, outstanding reputation as a student, and an honest, good, and hard-working personality._

 _This honour is not to be taken lightly, you will have duties to instruct and organise Prefects with their patrols and organise your own nightly patrols with the Head Boy. You are to be role models for the entire student body, especially your house._

 _You will be taken out of your usual house dormitory and placed in a separate tower to share with the Head Boy. Therefore you must await your head of house outside of your house common room after the first years have been shown the way then you will be shown to your new quarters. These separate dormitories are to be treated with respect and shall come with a central working area for both yourself and the Head Boy…._

Someone else burst into the living room, Rose quickly looked up. It was Lunette, her hair was purple and orange with excitement.

"Rose! Hugo just told me the news!" Lunette rushed in and hugged her best friend. "This is brilliant!"

"I know." Rose smiled proudly.

Hugo leaned in the doorway, watching his sister and her friend. Lunette noticed him first as she let go of Rose.

"You must be really proud of your big sister, huh?" Lunette grinned at Hugo, wishing, not for the first time, that she had a sibling.

Rose watched Hugo's face as he answered, she wasn't sure what his answer would be. What Lunette didn't realise was the full scale of which siblings can argue.

Hugo smiled genuinely at Rose. "I am, she deserves to be head girl."

Meanwhile, Albus planned on spending the day at Scorpius's house. After Rose's sudden burst into their home, Albus got dressed and Harry used a side-along apparition to get him to Malfoy Manor. They stopped outside the large black gates, which used to terrify Albus, but he had visited Scorpius so many times that it no longer had any effect on him. Harry on the other hand did not like it, it brought up too many memories of Albus's aunt Hermione. Harry gave an involuntary shiver and waited with his son until someone arrived at the gate. They expected it to be the house elf Petit, but in fact it was Scorpius who came running up the garden to let Albus in. The blonde boy greeted Harry cheerfully and Harry left his son, knowing that Albus was in safe hands with Astoria and Scorpius.

"You're more cheerful than usual." Albus observed.

Scorpius grinned. "That's because I have something to show you when we get to the house."

"Why don't you tell me now? I mean," Albus looked ahead and sighed. "This is a long path."

"I'm telling you, it'll be worth it."

The boys got to the kitchen where Astoria and Petit were making some sort of cake. Albus was confused as to why Astoria, a 'pureblood' member of the very wealthy Malfoy family, was baking with a house elf.

"Oh, mum went to a muggle cooking class to annoy my grandparents. Now she and Petit are trying to recreate some cake." Scorpius shrugged in reply, then he looked around the messy kitchen leaned in and whispered to Albus. "It would be messier and more of a disaster, but I've caught Petit using magic three times. Don't tell mum."

Albus looked behind him as the house elf giggled. She had heard what Scorpius had said.

"Anyway, you still haven't shown me what you're so excited about."

Scorpius grinned again and held up a small red and gold pin. Albus squinted to read it.

"I'm head boy!" Scorpius shouted.

Albus had never seen his friend so happy. But Albus was speechless for a while, he thought about Rose bursting into the living room just that morning announcing that she was Head Girl.

"What do you think? This is going to be a great last year! I'm so excited! But it does mean we won't be sharing a dormitory anymore-" Scorpius's happy rambling was interrupted by Albus, who suddenly burst into laughter.

Albus couldn't stop himself. The thought of Rose and Scorpius being head girl and head boy, wasn't too shocking considering that they were both academically brilliant and the only school rules they had broken was hexing each other in the corridors, but seeing them having to work together to set an example to the entire student body was simply hilarious to Albus.

'Well played headmaster, well played.' Albus thought. Scorpius and Rose would not be able to hex and argue with each other in the middle of the corridor if their duty was to set an example.

Scorpius was confused by Albus's laughing, Albus wouldn't explain why he found it so funny. Eventually he stopped laughing and was able to congratulate his friend. "But in all seriousness, they couldn't have chosen a better head boy. You'll do great buddy!"

"Thanks" Scorpius sighed. "I wonder who the head girl is."

"Yeah, I wonder." Albus couldn't look Scorpius in the eye otherwise he would burst out laughing again. 'Next year is going to be fun.' Albus thought, he couldn't wait.

 **SEPTEMBER**

Rose woke up early on September 1st. Her eyebrows knit with confusion. She looked down at her Hogwarts trunk, already packed and ready to go, in just a few hours. Her Head Girl badge laying on top of it. Yet the upcoming and exciting year at school was not the first thought on her mind.

The first thing Rose thought about when she woke up was as simple as this:

'Scorpius Malfoy was my first kiss. And that wasn't even the only time we kissed.'

Why should this enter into her thoughts? Why she should suddenly remember? Why now? Had she dreamed about it? The answers were all mysteries to her. It was a strange feeling, usually she got angry and confused whenever she thought about Scorpius, but that morning she felt nothing but comfort, shortly followed by confusion as usual as the comfort she felt was confusing. And as these thoughts were rushing through her head, she got irritated. Rose was not a morning person and being woken up early by her random thoughts of Scorpius, someone she was almost sure that she hated, irritated her.

September 1st, Scorpius woke up early too. He found himself staring at an old wizard photograph of Rose. He had no idea what urged him to bother to get out of bed despite the freezing cold, open a draw on the other side of the room and shuffle through useless pieces of parchment from his third year, to specifically find this photo.

 **ON THE TRAIN**

After hugging their parents for the fifth time, Rose finally dragged Hugo onto the train to find Albus and Lily. They waved out of the windows to their aunts and uncles who were standing near Hermione and Ron. And in front of them were all their cousins who had already left Hogwarts, the whole family always made the effort to wave goodbye at the start of the school year. Victoire and her daughters were already living in Hogsmeade with Teddy, but Molly, Lucy, Fred, James, Dominique and Roxanne were all there. Even the Scamander's had joined in the tradition as Lorcan was their waving with his parents, Luna and Rolf, to Lysander. The whole family were proud to see another Weasley as the head representative of the students.

Rose made her way straight to the prefect compartment and waited their arrival. There was a special register sheet with the proud words 'head girl' written on top, with the list of who should be turning. All were present and correct but Rose could not help but notice that Scorpius's name was not on the list this year. She was suspicious and curious, but told herself that she didn't care.

Rose ticked off all of the prefects as the entered, having been a prefect herself, she knew most of them.

"Where's the head boy?" Rose asked the prefects.

One of the fifth year Ravenclaws shrugged and said. "How do you not know who head boy is?"

Rose scowled. "The same way that none of you do. I'm not informed."

Scorpius walked in. Rose and Scorpius looked at each other and then quickly looked away. Both remembering their strange morning filled with thoughts of the other.

Rose's ears were bright red and she refused to look at him again.

"Oi, Parkinson," Scorpius spoke over all the prefects. "We need to talk." and he grabbed Lloyd roughly by the arm and dragged him into the corridor.

Rose knew that as head girl, she should have stopped one of her prefects from dragging the other away, but she really didn't want to have to talk to Scorpius.

And for that reason, neither noticed the other's head badge.

The first day back was turning into quite an anxious one for both Rose and Scorpius, as dinner ended and they lead their houses back to their dormitories, neither knew who they would be sharing a head student common room with. Headmaster Fairweather would normally have announced it in his greeting speech, but a heavy snowstorm had detained him from returning from his annual trip, that no one knew about, to Austria. Professor Nye took over the speech, but he forgot most of it and so he quickly let the students to their dinner.

Just as their letters instructed, Rose and Scorpius waited outside of their common rooms for their heads of house after all the first years had been shown to their rooms. When the potions professor arrived for Scorpius, his first question was who the head girl was. The professor was very uninterested.

"Oh, you don't know?"

"Well, no sir, that's why I asked." They were out of the dungeons now and the professor abruptly stopped.

"Malfoy, I do not have the time to show you to your new dormitory. Just wait for professor what's-his-face by the main staircase and he'll take you." the potions professor then left Scorpius alone and very confused.

Meanwhile, professor Longbottom found himself amused by Rose's excited and hurried manner as they made their way to the top of the main staircases. "So, Nev- I mean, Professor Longbottom, who's the head boy?" Rose asked excitedly as they made their way to the main staircase.

Longbottom looked at her with a confused expression. "You don't know?"

Rose shrugged. "It's not like they told me in the letter. And he didn't turn up to the prefect briefing on the train."

"Yes, well I know about that. But, I would've thought that he would tell you." He thought how Albus must have known.

"Ooh! Is it someone I know well then?"

Longbottom held in a laugh. "Oh yes." He spotted the new head boy making his way up the staircase to meet them. "Right, now Mr Malfoy and Miss Weasley, I must congratulate you both on-"

"HIM?!" Rose shouted in astonishment at the same time as Scorpius exclaimed as equally loud, "HER?!"

"Is this some kind of joke?!"

"Putting that weasel and a myself together?!"

"What did you just call me you little ferret?" Rose snapped at him.

"Silence!" Longbottom had to raise his voice to interrupt their little rants. He cleared his throat. "I know that you two have had … trouble … getting along in the past. But I know you both individually, and so I know for a fact that you can control of your tempers and respect the school and the other students in it enough that it isn't an issue. I know that putting the two of you together may not be the easiest of pairings, but you have both worked incredibly hard to get here, and you deserve it. If you are tempted to lose your heads and get hung up on petty issues, I'll remind you that all of that work will be for nothing if I am forced to take your badges away."

"But professor, you wouldn't! Would you?" They again spoke at the same time.

"I'm afraid that that's the way it's going to have to be. Personally, I think that you will make a great team to make this school proud. Once you get over your arguments or at least learn to keep them out of earshot, you can prove to everyone that you can be the best head students this school has ever seen."

Longbottom looked between Rose and Scorpius who both nodded. They looked at each other with a look that pleaded one not to mess up such a great opportunity for the other. Longbottom was satisfied with this and led the way to a tower near the prefect bathroom that no one, except the teachers and the occasional seventh year, really knew existed. He spoke about some of their duties as he went.

"You should be doing rounds of the castle every night. There is no need to be as extensive as you would be as a prefect, but you should be checking to make sure that nothing is amiss and that the schedule is being followed, and so on. This is in addition to your regular rounds which should be scheduled on the weekends. This is when we have the most issues with students out of bed excetera, we need the head boy and girl who have the authority to correct the problem. If you feel that you ever have any issues that need further correction, bring students to my office or to Headmaster Fairweather and we will deal with the matter from there.

Once they had reached the fifth floor and passed the Prefects bathroom, they finally arrived at a tall and wide tapestry with the Hogwarts emblem shown proudly on it.

"Your password is _Fwooper_. You know, those magnificently colourful-"

"-African birds sometimes used for fancy quills-" Rose smiled remembering their first ever magical creatures lesson, she and Scorpius had been friends back then. That was the same day that Rose drenched Norwood and Leyton in water, making them slip over in the mud and then she turned their hair the same colour as the fwoopers. Scorpius had defended her back then.

"-with a song to turn the listener insane, yes sir we know." Scorpius smiled back, finishing her sentence.

Longbottom, of course, knew that they both remembered that day. He had been the teacher who had to deal with the situation. He had chosen the password specifically to remind them that they can work together to make each other stronger.

"Good, good. Well then, let's hope you don't drive each other insane." Longbottom turned to the tapestry and muttered the password. The tapestry made a popping sound and disappeared revealing a solid oak door around the same size. He led them into a large room shaped like a semicircle, surrounded in bookshelves only broken up by the long and thin tapestries between each one, alternating between Slytherin and Gryffindor colors. The straight wall, on their right hand side, had huge windows facing the Scottish countryside. "This your shared room, it is for the two of you to study or meet to discuss heads business. It should not be a hang out for your friends. That does not mean that your friends cannot enter, because they can. But we trust you not to hold parties. Now, other students will need you to either open the door or say the password for them. If you tell them the password, it will have to change immediately."

Scorpius and Rose grinned like children in a sweet shop. There were two desks facing the windows and in the middle of the room, there were two two-seater sofas facing one another, and a coffee table in the middle. It was mostly oak decorated with gold, green and red. It was the perfect balance between professional and comfortable.

Longbottom cleared his throat again, knowing that he had lost the both in awe of the beautiful room. "If you look behind this two tapestries," he pointed to the only two tapestries with a fireplace in between rather than a bookshelf, "you will find the staircases to your rooms. Now, in your old dormitories, female and male students would not be able to get into the other's rooms. However, we trust you, so you will be able to enter each other's rooms if the password is spoken by the occupant. For example, if Miss Weasley was ill, Mr Malfoy would be able to enter to check on her if she says her chosen password. Mr Malfoy, if you yourself said the password, it would not work. This works both ways. But only the two of you can enter the individual rooms. But please remember the passwords when you make up, the only time you'll ever need to use them is to let each other in. Understood?"

They both nodded.

"Good, now I'm off to bed and I suggest you both do the same." Longbottom smiled at them both. "I am certain that you will both accomplish great things together. When you two work as a team, nothing can stop you."

Once Professor Longbottom was gone, Scorpius's eyes drifted to Rose who was inspecting the venue of the training grounds out of the window.

"You know it's our anniversary today Weasley." He smirked, catching her attention. "Of the first time we met, seven years ago."

Rose didn't even look at him as she felt the gryffindor tapestry hiding the staircase to her dormitory. "Yeah and about 4 years ago started being a complete arsehole." She grumbled.

"Look I didn't want to get stuck with you either." Scorpius huffed, he was more annoyed that she hadn't bothered to look at him than by what she had said. Then a thought occurred, one that was sure to get her to pay attention to him. Though he wasn't sure why he was so desperate for it. "Albus must've known about this, to think he kept it secret from both of us. I bet you he and Lunette are laughing at us right now." Scorpius said with a chuckle.

She finally turned to look at him and laughed too. "That bloody bastard, I might kill him." Rose joked.

"Kill him tomorrow, I'll help." He smiled and nodded at her, satisfied that she laughed with him rather than at him for once. "Goodnight." He pushed the Slytherin tapestry and climbed the stairs to his room.

Rose watched him leave and then tripped on the first step behind the gryffindor tapestry. Being used to her clumsiness, she shrugged it off and then opened the door to her dormitory and couldn't stop grinning. She had always, always loved Gryffindor tower. The was something so comforting about the plush armchairs, cushioned window sills and ever glowing fire that she had been surrounded by for the last six years, but her head girl dormitory was now definitely her favorite room in the castle. It was a larger room than she had been expecting and she had her own bathroom. The bed was larger than her normal four poster in the dorm she had shared with the other girls previously. But other than its size, everything was very similar to her room in the Gryffindor tower from the bed sheets and curtains, to the centrally-located stove.

"Now," she spoke out loud, "On to choosing a password that will let Malfoy in. I never want him in."

 **LATER IN THE EVENING**

"So?" Rose looked at Scorpius eventually made his way down to the study room. She sat with her book, waiting for him, legs crossed on the sofa. "Explain yourself."

"What?"

"Why weren't you at the prefect briefing?"

"Yes I was, you saw me."

"Only briefly and you didn't even start the meeting! Explain."

Scorpius shrugged and leant on the mantelpiece of the fireplace. "I just wasn't and Longbottom knows why, so leave it at that."

Rose thought for a moment. "Parkinson wasn't there either. I assumed his prefect badge was taken away but I thought they would've replaced him with someone else."

"No, he's not a prefect anymore, as of this morning. They didn't have enough time to get a new one."

Rose stood up suddenly and marched over to Scorpius. She peered closely at his face and saw that there was something around his eye. She touched it gently and Scorpius let out a small whimper in pain. She saw the thick yellow paste. She knew what it was, the amount of times she fell down the stairs as a child or fallen out of a tree, she had to know what the paste was. Bruise removal paste. Rose took a step back and realised that there was some on his left arm too.

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing." Scorpius shrugged, wishing he had waited the full hour for the paste to work in his room.

"Right," Rose put her hands on her hips. "So if I go to the hospital wing or the Slytherin common room right now, I won't find Parkinson covered in bruise removal paste too?"

"No, you won't find _him_ with any bruises." Scorpius said bitterly.

Rose felt a sudden wash of hurt for him. But she covered it up and rolled her eyes and charged out of the study room.

"I said no, Weasley! I wasn't lying about that." Scorpius called after her but Rose was already gone.

She came back twenty minutes later to find that Scorpius was not in the study room any more. Rose had just been to visit Lily in the Gryffindor Common room. And brought back with her, as a celebration of not killing each other on their first night as head boy and girl. She placed a paper bag full of sherbert lemons and Berty Bot's every flavour beans on the small table between the two sofas. Rose slipped behind the Slytherin tapestry that hid the stairs to Scorpius's room. She knocked three times.

"What?" Scorpius groaned.

"Come down, I've got a truce surprise." Rose spoke through the door.

Scorpius was confused as to what in the world a 'truce surprise' was. But then he was always confused when it came to Rose. So Scorpius came down.

"So, just out of interest, what's your password to let me in?" Scorpius asked as he sat down opposite her.

"Allez-Vous en." Rose said indifferently.

"What? What's Allez-Vous en? It's french for something I don't really want to know, right?"

Rose shrugged. " What about your password?"

"I haven't decided yet. Maybe just ginger twat."

Rose nodded. "I see, keeping it simple." she couldn't be bothered to argue.

Scorpius laughed and used an accio spell to retrieve the book he was reading _Neverwhere_ by Neil Gaiman. They spent the night mostly in silence, reading separate books, eating sweets and laughing at each other's disgusted expressions. Every flavour beans had that effect on people. It was peaceful and almost perfect. Both knew that it wouldn't be long before their next argument.

The first week of school was a hectic and stressful one for Rose. She had spent hours during the summer holiday doing the first history of magic homework due at the end of the first week. She had even made three drafts of it to finally get the result she wanted. But on the day before it was due, after Rose had almost finished organising her side of the Head Boy and Girl common room, the essay was nowhere to be found.

She spent the entire morning before classes searching for it in her room and around her shelves in the shared common room.

As Rose was frantically searching around, Scorpius sat lazily in front of the fire with his feet up on the table writing a letter home.

"What's up with _you_ Weasley?" Scorpius finally asked after hearing Rose's multiple exasperated sighs.

"Just because we're role models to other students and we now share a study room, doesn't mean you have to start pretending to care." Rose huffed and disappeared behind the right tapestry to look in her room.

"Oh look, a red head with a temper. How original." Scorpius sarcastically jibed.

Rose peeked out behind the tapestry and copied his exact tone. "Oh look, a dumb blond. How original." his reaction was to slump deeper in his chair. "Yeah, I've had ginger jokes all my life Malfoy. You have to either dye your hair or decide to stop caring." Rose huffed again and went back upstairs.

She still couldn't find her essay during morning break, her free periods or lunch time. Rose was beginning to panic like never before. Lunette, Phil and Mel agreed to come and help her search for it. They looked all over the castle and again in the head boy and head girl study room.

"Look Rose," Phil said after their last lesson of the day was over. "Why don't you just write it again?"

"Yeah! You still have your notes." Mel tried to sound encouraging.

"I guess." Rose mumbled disappointedly. She couldn't help but wonder if Phil and Mel had come simply to see the head common room, as they leant against the windowsill 'helping'. "I just know that it won't be as good as the original. And it'll take all night."

"I know." Lunette wrapped an arm around Rose's shoulder and rubbed her arm soothingly. "But knowing you, the rest of your essays this year will be more than enough to make up for one grade that is marginally lower than the rest. I'm pretty sure you'll still get a passing grade on this one."

"It's alright Weasley," Scorpius jeered at her as he stood from the sofa.

Mel and Phil jumped, they didn't know he was there. Lunette sent him a warning look, not to mess with Rose at that moment but he just grinned and ignored it.

"I bet you're used to being second best by now. My essay for Professor Binns is going to crush your last minute one like a Lionfish spine." Scorpius strutted out of the shared study room and behind the Slytherin tapestry.

Rose scowled at his back. Phil and Mel frowned with confusion.

"Crushed like a what?" Phil finally asked.

"Lionfish spine." Rose said obviously as she slumped into the chair by her desk.

They were still confused. This amused Scorpius as he walked back in holding a book.

"You know, Lionfish spines are long and separated and crushed into powder" Rose said.

"There used in healing potions, such as the Wiggenweld Potion." Lunette nodded. "It is also an ingredient of the Herbicide Potion."

Mel rolled her eyes. "I forgot that we're friends with the walking textbook and her sneaky potions genius sidekick." she mumbled to Phil.

Lunette rolled her eyes then turned to Scorpius. "You've got to work on less nerdy insults."

"If they don't understand them, they're not worth the insult."

Lunette laughed and threw a nearby cushion at him. "I understood it, am I worth the insult?" she pushed him with a grin.

"Come on Lunette, you're one of my best friends. You're worth every insult I throw at you."

Lunette laughed again. "Don't be so rude, you'll make them think worse of you."

"I already think the worst of Malfoys." Mel muttered, scowling at Scorpius.

Lunette straightened up and opened her mouth to defend her friend, but Rose got there first, surprising both of them into brief silence.

"Mel, shut up. You don't know what you're talking about, just because you think you know a family's history, it doesn't mean that the assumptions apply, and he certainly doesn't fit the stereotype."

Rose wasn't looking at any them, preoccupied by searching through her desk draws, so she didn't notice the stunned silence. She slammed a draw shut in frustration, which brought them all back to the present. Rose picked up a pile of parchment and inked her quill. "Thanks guys, for trying to find my essay. I'm going to re-write it now, I'm in for a long night. See you tomorrow."

Lunette looked at her watch, "You're not coming to dinner?"

"I don't have time."

Phil sighed at looked concerned for her friend. "Alright Rose, we'll see you tomorrow." She patted Rose on the shoulder.

Before they all left, Phil quickly turned around. "Oh, Rose! I forgot to say, Ben Rome, our new quidditch captain, told me to tell you that quidditch trials are at the end of next week. Just in case you want to be keeper again."

Rose smiled gratefully at Phil. "Tell Ben that I'll be there, and congratulations on being quidditch captain."

Phil nodded and strolled out with Mel, Lunette paused as she went through the doorway and gave Rose a curious look.

Rose didn't notice and got stuck into her essay.

Meanwhile Scorpius ran down to the hall, he found Albus halfway through eating mash potatoes at the Slytherin table.

"Hey! There's our head boy." Albus greeted him happily. "Where have you been all day? Lunette said that she saw you but-"

Scorpius grabbed Albus's arm and dragged him into the corridor.

"I need your help with something."

"What?"

"It might take all night and you're not allowed to tell anyone or ask me any questions."

Albus looked suspiciously at Scorpius, but agreed to help anyway.

Rose woke up, slumped over her desk, at about 4am the next day. She panicked and picked up her dry quill, she was annoyed at herself for falling asleep, and now her essay would never be finished. Rose struggled to keep her eyes open as she wrote the next paragraph, when she realised that there was a blanket wrapped around her. 'I must have gotten up at some point during the night and forgot about it' Rose thought as she shook her head to remember, but no memory came.

Rose was just about to fall asleep again when something caught her eye. There was still a very tall pile of books that she had yet to put away, and sticking out in the middle was a wad of parchment. Rose was too tired to care and yanked out the parchment, toppling over the books with a heavy thump.

Scorpius came running down and flung open the tapestry. "What, in Merlin's name, was that?" He sleepily groaned.

Rose was suddenly very awake. She had found her essay. She squealed with excitement.

"What have you broken now Weasley?" Scorpius was grumpy.

Rose couldn't help but smile, and when she looked up at Scorpius, it startled him. He hadn't seen her genuinely smile at him with joy in a while.

"I found my essay!"

"Big whoop." Scorpius said in a monotone voice.

Rose rolled her eyes. Then she noticed that Scorpius was only wearing his boxers. Faded red circular marks remained on his chest from the quidditch incident that had sent him to the hospital wing the previous year. She remembered how scared she was, how worried she had been. Rose could remember how much she cared about him in that moment, it returned to her and made her flustered. Her ears turned pink and Rose quickly fluttered upstairs.

"That was it? All the noise was because you found some parchment." Scorpius pushed back the Gryffindor tapestry and spoke to her on the stairs.

"Get ready to be second best again. Goodnight Malfoy." Rose said curtly then slammed her door.

Scorpius's eyes flicked to the nearest clock across the room, it was 4;05 am. "Good morning Weasley."

What Rose didn't see was Scorpius's smile. She didn't see him putting the books back into their tall pile, she didn't see the plate of food left for her on the desk and she didn't see him folding away the green blanket with a large 'S' stitched in one corner.

 **END OF SEPTEMBER**

Rose had finished giving herself a pep talk in the mirror and boldly made her way down to the shared common room. Scorpius was on his sofa, his now usual spot, doing homework.

"Good morning, spoilt git, how did you sleep?" Rose said cheerfully, she didn't care what he said or what happened. Today was the day of her last quidditch trials. She was nervous but confident.

"Thanks for asking bushy twit, I slept quite well."

"That's a shame, knob head." Rose put one foot at a time on the small coffee table and tied her laces.

"And how did you sleep, twat?"

"I slept great knowing that today is the day I get back on the quidditch team so I can beat you again this year."

"Only in your dreams." Scorpius shrugged as he went back to doing his homework.

"You're still here, it must be a nightmare." Rose marched to the door, her confidence unaffected by his words. She took a deep breath and swung open the door.

The quidditch trials could not have gone better for Rose. She was certain she was on the team again, especially since the other people trying out for keeper were terrible in comparison. On their way out of the changing rooms, Rose and Ben Rome walked together back to the castle laughing. Lunette watched them from the castle doors and caught the end of the conversation.

"...no, I'm serious!" Ben laughed with Rose. "And then he fell right into the cake!"

Rose laughed even harder. "No way. You have to be pulling my leg!"

"Nope, I really do have the clumsiest uncle in the world. My cousin was furious, he thought it was the end of the world and that his wedding was a failure. Luckily his new husband thought it was all hilarious and calmed him down."

Rose smiled. "Well it's nice to know that there is someone out there worse than me."

Ben grinned. "You're not that bad, I mean yeah, I've seen you fall over so many times that I no longer worry if you've hurt yourself. But you're awesome on a broom." He looked up and saw they were already at the castle. "Hey Lunette." he waved then turned to Rose. "So, umm, I'll see you later. I've got to go and make the list for this years team."

"Right! Well I'll see you later Ben." Rose smiled sweetly as he walked away. "Hey Lunette, have you got your tryouts today as well?"

Lunette raised her eyebrows. "No, no, no. You are not leading this conversation away from Ben."

"I don't know what you mean."

"I mean, what was that? Giggling and smiling at him. I hate to say it Rose, but you're acting like a girly girl."

Rose laughed and rolled her eyes. "No you're a girl." she mumbled.

"Yes I am, why thank you. Soon I'll earn the title of young woman." Lunette grinned. "But Rose, seriously, what was that? Do you like Ben?" Her eyes widened as Rose's ears turned red. "Merlin's beard! You like Ben!"

Rose punched Lunette softly in the arm. "Shut up! I have nosey cousins all over Hogwarts." She grabbed Lunette and dragged her to a quiet corner in the main corridor. "Ok, so I'm not sure, but may have a little crush-"

"You really really like him!" Lunette squealed.

"Shhh! I'm not sure yet, it could just be that I like him as a friend" Rose was concerned that Lunette was jumping to conclusions before she had even come to one herself.

"So, when are you going to ask him out?"

"ARE YOU KIDDING?! I can't ask him out!"

"Are you one of those people that think only guys can ask people out, because that's stupid."

"No, I don't think that. But I can't just tell a guy that I like him."

"Why not?"

"Because it's embarrassing. And what if he doesn't like me? And what if it gets really awkward and we can't even hang around together anymore? And, more importantly, I'm not even sure myself."

Lunette rolled her eyes. "Ok, well what if he does like you back? And even if he doesn't, he'll see you in a new way. If you say you like him, it will be impossible to look at you without thinking about what dating you would be like. And then his feelings will grow and you guys can go out."

"Ok, I see your point..." Rose nodded and saw Lunette's logic. "I guess you mean like when Elizabeth goes to Rosings Park after she turned down Mr Darcy, and she couldn't help but think that if she had said yes to him, then she would have been presented to Lady Catherine as her future niece. Except of course that was very different because Darcy loved her but she hated him, and I don't think either mine or Ben's opinions of each other are as strong as either of those emotions"

Lunette was lost. "What? Is this some nerdy reference?"

Rose nodded again. "I may or may not be rereading _Pride and Prejudice_ for the fifth time."

"Isn't that a really old, muggle romance novel?"

Rose was embarrassed, but couldn't help but smile. "Shut up, it's one of my favourite books."

Lunette simply rolled her eyes but stayed silent so that her logic could fully set in with Rose. But it only worked for a brief second as Rose's irrational thoughts overtook.

"But what if he likes someone else? What if he's gay? What if he laughs at me? What if he gets offended because he thinks it's a joke? What if he thinks I only like him because he's the quidditch captain? What if-"

"Rose! Just tell him."

Rose began to slowly nod, but stopped. "No."

"But-"

"No."

"Fine," Lunette shrugged. "I'll tell him." she moved away but wasn't quick enough. Rose grabbed her wrist and stood firmly in her way.

"Don't you dare." in her blind panic, Rose's voice sounded more menacing and desperate than she realised.

"Rose! What's the big deal? I don't see any downside to this! You'll be in a couple with Ben, and I've got Albus and we can all go to Hogsmeade-"

Rose crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. "That's it, isn't it?"

"That's what?" Lunette repeated slowly, Rose was making no sense in her mind.

"You want me to date Ben- no, you just want me to date anyone so that we can all hang out together!" Rose rolled her eyes and huffed. "Well it's not happening! What? Are you bored with Albus now? You're really stooping to such levels just to get another couple hang out with?"

Lunette wasn't having any of it, she finally saw right through Rose. "Rose Minerva Granger-Weasley-"

"What's with the middle name?" Rose mumbled but Lunette continued.

"You've just realised that you told someone else about your feelings and it's freaking you out. Little crush or not, you don't like sharing the romantic side of you. I love Albus and I'm very happy with him, you know that, I know that and he knows that. So don't try and draw attention from yourself by turning me into a manipulative villain. I am not my mother and I am not my grandparents-"

"I never said anything about your grandparents. What's going on with your grandparents?" Rose mumbled a bewildered and concerned question but Lunette, once again, ignored her and moved swiftly on.

"-so you will promise to at least _think_ about the _possibility_ of telling him that you like him?"

Rose frowned. "Fine." she grumbled. "But don't you _dare_ tell anyone about this!"

Lunette grinned with triumph. "Tell anybody what? That you like Ben? Or, even more shocking, that you have a romantic side to you?"

Rose clenched her fists, took a deep breath and subtly pointed her wand at Lunette's feet. "None of it. Ok Lunette. No one needs to know anything." she made her way down the corridor.

"It's alright, I'll keep your secret."

Lunette began to follow but she tripped on her shoelaces and fell flat on the floor. Rose stopped and turned around, giving Lunette a cheeky grin. Once her laces were tied, they walked together to the great hall for lunch.

Later in the evening, all Gryffindors crowded together in the common room. They were all waiting for the quidditch team to be announced. Ben had to stand on a table just to get to the board and pin up the list. As soon as it was tacked up, everyone shifted forwards, leaving poor Ben squashed as he wriggled his way out of the crowd and to the opposite side of the room. Rose watched him, disheveled and flustered, flatten his hair to it's usual charm. Ben looked at Rose and grinned before settling himself smugly on an armchair by the windowsill. Rose's ears turned red and she quickly turned to follow the crowd. Everyone was calm and patient, if a little too close together, as they craned their neck to look at the list. That was until Grant Hathaway and Wesley McLaggen came barging through and pushing second years out of the way.

"Move it spare parts! Seventh years with an actual chance of getting on the team coming through!" Grant shouted.

Rose rolled her eyes as they strutted past her. Rather than wasting her insults on them, she simply stuck out her foot for Grant to trip on. He growled at her as he stood up, but remembering that Rose was Rose and could hex him until he was sore, he decided against getting in a fight with her.

Rose was fed up of all the pushing and shoving and used an accio spell to make the list to come to her. Everyone stared as she stood on a chair and read it outloud.

Ben Rome….Captain/Seeker

Kibwe Smith, fourth year….Chaser

Jyn Rey, fourth year….Chaser

Justin Cole, fifth year….Chaser

Lily Potter, fifth year….Beater

Philomela Abel-Roy, seventh year….Beater

Rose Granger-Weasley, seventh year….Keeper

Rose used her wand to carefully pin the list back to the board so that people could see from themselves if they didn't believe her. Rose wobbled as she tried to get off the chair and ended up toppling it completely over, giving her carpet burns on her hands from when she braced herself. She smiled at Ben from across the room sheepishly, feeling like an idiot as he must have seen her fall, and was about to go and talk to him but Lily's excited jumping interrupted her.

"I'm on the team! Rose I'm on the team!" Lily shook Rose's shoulders excitedly.

"That's great! But why didn't you join the team last year?"

Lily's face scrunched up into an expression of disgust. "And have my brother bossing me about on the pitch? No thanks, I'd rather have a complete stranger who seems really nice. There is one problem though, my ex, Justin, is on the team. I can work with him if he doesn't piss me off."

"Has something happened?" Rose was concerned.

"No, he just continues to flirt with me every now and then. Which is annoying because I don't like him in the slightest, but if he's good enough to get on the team, then I guess I'm going to have to set aside our differences."

Rose nodded and looked over to Justin Cole who was having an argument with Grant Hathaway about who deserved to be on the team. "Plus, you're a beater, you have a bat and a dangerous ball to deal with. He should watch his step."

Lily laughed, "Good point Rose. So, how's it being head girl? Do you miss your Gryffindor roommates? Oh, shoot, I just realised that I'm going to have to get along better with Abel-Roy."

"Well I don't miss them talking at midnight about boys and I don't miss their random hairbrushes and hot hair straighteners lying randomly on the floor and I don't miss them at all." Rose shrugged. "I still see Phil, and we're still friends. I swear Mel is getting dumber, which I didn't think was possible when we literally live in school. Sorry, that was cruel, I don't really think that. I think Anna has decided to cut all ties with me as soon as she could. And I'm fine with that." Rose spotted someone else she wanted to talk with and gently grabbed his arm as he bounced passed so he joined in the conversation with Lily. "Hey Kibwe!"

"Wealsey! Hey!"

"Congratulations for getting on the team."

"Thanks! My brother has been teaching me how to play quidditch all summer, he said that, even though I love rugby so much, I should give a wizard game a chance. I'm actually on my way to tell Louis the news!" Kibwe ran out of the common and Lily was left smiling.

"Ok, so I don't really know the team but you do. So our captain is in your year. What's he like?"

Rose tried very hard to not smile when she heard his name. Lily noticed a slight twitch on Rose's face but put it down to tiredness. "He, um, he's nice and funny and fair when it comes to quidditch. He's spent most of his time at Hogwarts invisible so I think he's determined to prove himself this year."

"Ok, so who was that Smith guy and who is Jyn Rey?"

Rose nodded. "Kibwe Smith, I'm not sure if you'd remember his older brother. Mosi Smith, he was a Ravenclaw in the year above and was pretty close with Roxanne. He was their quidditch captain too, so the Ravenclaws will also have a new captain this year."

"Yeah, but how do you know the little brother?"

"Fourth year, I was on my way to teach Malfoy how to do that Orchideous charm and we found Kibwe crying, he was a first year back. Parkinson and his friends had stolen his rugby ball and bullied him."

Lily grinned. "Ooh, so what did you do to Parkinson?"

"I don't know what you mean." Rose lied.

"Come on, Rose Granger-Weasley catches Parkinson bullying someone and doesn't get revenge? I don't believe it."

"Fine," Rose grumbled, "I froze them."

Lily was proud of her cousin. "You're awesome. So how long are you hanging around the common room? Or do you need to get back to the mysterious land of head girl."

Rose laughed. "The mysterious what?"

"Well, you know what I mean, only seventh years know where the head student common room is. The rest of us think of it a little bit of a mystery."

"Hey Lily." Some fifth year that Rose vaguely recognised, completely ignored her and stood between the two cousins. He had a charming smirk on that Rose had often seen guys turn on whenever they were around Lunette or Lily.

"Hey Robert." Lily was trying to be polite, even though she was annoyed that he had cut between her and Rose. But one look at Rose's amused face stopped her from shooting down the guy straight away. Lily thought that they both could do with a good laugh at the expense of some guy's attempt to flirt with her.

"Please, call me Rob, my friends call me Rob." He took a step closer to Lily and fiddled with a strand of her loose hair. "And I'd like us to be closer than friends. Well, Lily, I've seen you around and I have to say, you're beautiful and smart and funny. And, hey," he was trying to sound charming but it sounded more condescending. "Congrats on getting on the quidditch team. You must be one talented gal. You're boyfriend must be really proud."

It took everything for Rose not to burst out laughing.

Lily was not impressed, she had heard and shot down guys better at flirting than this. "Robert, you know I don't have a boyfriend, you asked me twice yesterday and you asked Hugo three times the day before that."

Rose spotted Hugo rolling his eyes from across the room, he knew exactly what was going on. They had both been there many times before. Some guy flirting with Lunette, and Rose would simply stand there, ignored, waiting until the guy eventually gave up so that she could get back to her conversation. Rose realised that Hugo must have been in the same position as her but with Lily on multiple occasions. The only difference was that Lunette used to fall for the pathetic guys and dated them for no more than a week, before Albus came along.

Rose caught Ben's eye from by the door, he was talking to McLaggen, who had removed himself from Grant Hathaway and Sullivan Earls. The two idiots were still arguing over the quidditch time while Wesley and Ben just just watched unamused.

Wesley spotted Rose, nodded and smiled, then went to break up his friend's fight. Ben waved to Rose and slipped out of the door. Rose excused herself from the conversation she was not really part of, Lily was annoyed to be left alone with the poorly flirting guy. Rose followed Ben out of the door.

"Oh, hey Rose!" Ben was sitting on the stairs, watching the first years scurry to their houses before curfew.

"I saw you talking to McLaggen, is everything alright?"

"Yeah um, actually, now that you're out here, there's something I've been meaning to say."

Rose was startled and she made her way to him.

"Um, well, this is going to sound really weird and out of the blue, but I think you should give McLaggen a chance."

Rose suddenly found herself falling on the floor, wondering how on earth being shocked made her trip over her own feet.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, no, I'm fine." she quickly jumped up at brushed herself off. "But McLaggen?! Really? I thought you didn't like him, why are you telling me to give him a chance? And I don't really think he wants a chance with me. We used to do prefect rounds together and his stupidity would annoy me, that's the only time we've really hung out." she sat beside him.

"Exactly, you don't really know him. I mean yeah, he has bullied me in the past, but I had a normal conversation with him and he seemed alright. I think he puts on the arsehole act in front of Grant and Sully. And, don't get mad, but he told me that he kept on catching you and Malfoy not arguing-"

Rose rolled her eyes. "That little twat doesn't realise that it's effort to constantly argue and shout. Occasionally you have to calm down a bit and just use sarcasm to piss Malfoy off."

Ben chuckled. "Alright, but what I'm trying to say is that he told me that he had never told everyone, he had told a few, but he didn't spread it around like he normally would. And I think he might kind of like you."

Rose rolled her eyes again, she didn't not want to hear this.

"So he had the decency, for once in his life, not to gossip. And you think he likes me because of that?" she raised her eyebrows.

"Well, that, and he just told me."

Rose couldn't help but laugh, it was a very loud 'HA!'. Which she was embarrassed by.

"Rose, he just told me that he realised that you are so much more than you seem. And because we're friends, he was hoping I would say something to you."

Rose took a deep breath and gambled. "And how do you feel about this? Being a messenger for the guy that used to bully you, I mean."

Ben shrugged. "He's alright, he actually apologised to me yesterday."

"And what did you say to that?"

He smiled cheekily. "I said no amount of apologising would make me put him on the team."

Rose laughed with him, kind of glad that she had left, but also regretted having to hear about McLaggen.

"So what are you going to do about him?" Ben asked after a moment of silence.

Rose was irritated, "Can we just drop it? Please? I don't want to talk about him."

"Oh, sorry." Ben felt bad but he didn't know why. He was about to put an arm around Rose, because she seemed like she needed it, but Scorpius suddenly arrived around the corner.

"Weasley! Where have you been? We're meant to do rounds." Scorpius tried to sound annoyed, but the sight of Rose and Ben deflated him slightly.

"Oh, right." Rose slowly stood and looked down at Ben, "Well, I'll see you later."

Ben just nodded at Rose, he scowled at Scorpius and went back inside the common room.

Scorpius sighed and thought to himself, 'is this another person who doesn't like me because I'm a Malfoy?' Looking at Rose, he thought she might have some sort of clue. "Great, now what's _his_ problem with me?"

Rose shrugged uninterestedly. "I don't know, you're an annoying twat. Could that be it?"

Scorpius felt like giving Rose a massive hug, despite the insult. She had no idea how good it was that she didn't hate him just because he was a Malfoy. She hated him because she took the time to get to know him, not just judge him by his name, and then, over time, realised that she couldn't hate anyone more. It was a bittersweet feeling. Something in him wanted her good opinion again.

Rose scowled at him while they walked. "Why did you even bother looking for me? We've got about half an hour until prefect rounds actually begin. And since when do you care where I am or if I'm on time for anything?"

She had him there. Scorpius didn't know how to answer, he didn't really know why he had gone looking for Rose. He knew where she would be anyway, and Rose was never late to anything if she could help it. Scorpius spotted a second year dropped their bag and he ran to them to avoid answering Rose. But Rose didn't notice, was was too busy thinking about Ben and McLaggen.

Their rounds were completed quickly and in almost silence, Scorpius was aware that Rose was annoyed and thinking to herself so he let her without interruption. When they reached the shared common room, Rose went straight to her room, so did Scorpius. But he sat on his bed for ten minutes wondering what had made her so quiet. Scorpius went downstairs and read his book on the sofa, hoping to catch Rose if she went down. However, she did not come down. Rose took to distracting herself with an essay for potions.

 **OCTOBER**

The first day of the month was not a good start for anyone. Lunette and Albus got in a small argument about Rose's birthday, they had both bought her a muggle book of Grimm fairy tales and neither could decide who she give theirs to her. Lily had just started dating a new guy, which meant that Hugo was accidentally pushed away, but her new boyfriend turned out to be nothing like she thought he was and Lily was regretting it. Louis and Kibwe Smith had decided to take the mischievous place of James and Lorcan, but their pranks were small scale, no one noticed them, which was disheartening to the young tricksters. Rose was walking back to the castle from quidditch practise when Ben caught up with her.

"Rose! Have you thought more about McLaggen?"

"Oh, um, no. I've never really liked him, at all, not even as a friend. I've never even thought of him as a decent human being. So I think I'll pass on this one." she couldn't hide the bitterness from her tone but Ben didn't pick up on it.

"You know that he was watching our practise?"

"Oh really, how interesting." Rose said in a monotone voice to show her sarcasm and lack of enthusiasm to talk to her crush about another guy.

"Look, he's right behind us." Ben gently held Rose's arm, they stopped and waited for McLaggen to catch up.

Meanwhile, Scorpius, Lunette and Albus sat outside the castle, freezing cold in the crisp morning air. Albus was grumbling about how Rose was his cousin and so he should be the one giving the present. While Lunette wouldn't stop rolling her eyes. Scorpius sat between them wishing he was anywhere else. He had originally been in the library with the couple, trying to do homework, but their bickering had got them kicked out. Scorpius tried to escape them by sitting outside but they followed. He was hoping that the cold would drive them inside and leave him without the muttering and half hearted arguments. But no such luck was to be had. The three watched the Gryffindor team come off the pitch and Lunette pointed out Rose talking to Ben Rome. They were close enough to hear what was going on without looking like they were eavesdropping.

"Rose, just give him a chance, you're very charming and I'm sure you'd make a good couple."

Rose resisted the urge to scream in frustration and run away.

"Hey Weasley." McLaggen was confident and cocky as ever.

"McLaggen." Rose acknowledged him.

Ben nodded encouragingly and Rose regretted what she did next. She smiled sweetly and McLaggen and did the typical and obvious, twirling her hair, flirty move that most girls did to pretend that they were shy in front of guys.

"Great practise today, I think the team is definitely going to win." McLaggen was relishing in Rose's attention. He actually was quite content with any attention from anyone, but somehow a girl flirting with him made his head swell with ego. That was exactly it, his ego wouldn't let him see that Rose was clearly fake flirting to make fun of him.

"Oh, thanks," Rose gently nudged Wesley with her arm, she had seen some of her cousins do it when they flirted with guys. Rose hated herself for doing it, and felt like an idiot wishing she could disapparate on Hogwarts grounds. "I mean, that's why I'm on the team, so we can win. It's a real shame you didn't get on the team." She couldn't help but lay on the sarcasm thick.

McLaggen shrugged and smirked. "I guess I just wasn't good enough, but hey, you certainly were." his eyes suddenly narrowed and Rose felt like she was being studied like an animal at the zoo. "Hey, you have a really nice smile, too bad I don't get to see it a lot."

Her fake smile dropped, it took everything in her bones not to roll her eyes and punch him. Rose had heard him use that line with every girl he ever spoke to. Ben, who had taken a step back, grinned and elbowed Rose with a wink. He seemed too proud of himself, Rose thought, it was almost as if neither guys realised that Rose was doing it as a joke.

She knew that she had to get away.

"You know what," Rose forced herself to keep smiling. "I should probably go and have a shower." She darted off as quickly as she could.

Scorpius, Albus and Lunette had seen it all. They were shocked. Rose had been flirting with Wesley McLaggen, something they had never expected to witness in their lives. Lunette and Albus were stunned to silence and were stuck to where they sat. Scorpus, on the other hand, felt a jealous rage, the strength of which he had never felt before. He rushed to the shared common room before Rose was out of her shower. He sat unsuspecting on the sofa by the fireplace.

After she had showered and got dressed, Rose went down to her desk in the common room. She took one look at Scorpius and decided to ignore him while she did some work. She was trying calm herself down after the frustration that had come after Ben encouraged her to give McLaggen a chance.

Ten minutes went by before Scorpius made himself say something. Rose had stood to fetch her potions textbook from one of the many bookshelves, when Scorpius spoke as calmly as he could.

"Look, Weasley, I know we hate each other, but seriously, Wesley McLaggen is no good. None of his friends are, especially Grant Hathaway." He sounded more patronising than he had meant to.

Rose grit her teeth and spun to glare at him. "Why do you care?"

Scorpius tried to shrug it off. "I don't hate anyone enough to let them go out with McLaggen when I know I can try and stop it."

"Let me? You won't _let me_ go out with Wesley?" Rose was outraged. She slammed her textbook on her desk, sat down and pulled her chair in, in a huff. She did not need Scorpius giving her his views on the subject when she was already annoyed about it.

Scorpius realised his mistake. "Ok, that came out wrong. I just mean that he isn't worth anyone's time. He was a right git to Mea last year and-"

"Oh, I get it. He went out with your girl and now you're getting back at him." Rose smiled knowingly.

"That's not it all! I'm not friends with Mae anymore, she's just loud and over shares." Scorpius defended himself. He was on the edge of his seat, making himself keep a distance from Rose. "Anyway, McLaggen is a twat! He pretty much treated Mea like his personal servant and apparently he was a bad kisser, always had bad breath and used way too much tongue." then he mumbled to himself "I wish she had never told me that part." Scorpius looked up and stormed over to Rose's desk, she was ignoring him. "He cheated on her, and every girlfriend he's ever had! Seriously Weasley, as head boy I have to look after my fellow students-"

"Oh don't give me that crap!" Rose suddenly stood as well and angrily spat. "Anyway, I don't get why you're so upset about it, I wasn't going to go out with him anyway."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Well you could've said that to begin with."

"I just wanted to see how far you would go." Rose smirked. "Is it possible that Mr Malfoy actually cares about my well being?"

Scorpius trudged back to the sofa. "Only in your dreams Weasley."

Rose slyly moved over to the sofas and perched on the armrest beside him. "And what would you know about my dreams?" She said in an almost whisper and leant down.

Scorpius lightly chuckled. "Well I'm pretty sure I feature in them heavily."

"You're right," Rose moved closer so their faces were only inches apart.

Scorpius's heart thumped loudly, he wondered if Rose could hear it too.

Rose smirked "It's getting too easy to beat you at everything in real life, at least dream Malfoy is gives me more competition." she stood up straight and laughed.

"Good one Weaselby." Scorpius muttered when Rose had gone to her room.

He couldn't help but admire her witty comebacks and he couldn't hide the relief he felt knowing that she wouldn't be dating McLaggen. Yet the feeling confused Scorpius. If he hated her so much, why did it matter who she did or didn't date.

Rose spent most of the month avoiding Ben, though she still hadn't decided if she liked him as more than a friend, she found that she was deflated by his encouragement of McLaggen and didn't want to think about it. Her birthday came and went rather quickly, she barely had enough time to enjoy turning 18, between essays quidditch practise and trying to get over a crush. And all the while Wesley McLaggen wouldn't leave her alone. Rose often thought about how the worst part for her was that, being the head girl, she couldn't punch McLaggen in the face without serious consequences. Scorpius was the only one who noticed her clenched fists whenever McLaggen was near. He noticed because he wanted to punch McLaggen as well.

One morning, at the end of October, rumours were buzzing around the castle. Even the teachers had heard it.

The rumour was that Rose and Wesley had been secretly dating for almost a whole month. The night before Rose had had to accompany McLaggen on his prefect duty as his partner was ill. Something which Scorpius had volunteered to do instead, but Rose had simply sighed and accepted her fate.

Late that night someone had exited the Hufflepuff common room to see Rose and McLaggen together in a compromising position. The person who had caught them happened to be none other than Felix Sterling, who went crying to his twin sister Robin, who was more than delighted to gossip and slander Rose Granger-Weasley.

What made the rumour stronger, was McLaggen boasting of the secret relationship. And Rose simply became withdrawn and quiet all day, not her usual feisty self. The rumour made Scorpius sick to his stomach. Mae Blinston had been gossiping about the rumour very loudly, no doubt for his benefit. To those that directly asked Rose, she denied the rumour, but McLaggen was so much louder in his confirmation.

In their potions class, Scorpius sat beside Rose, ready to insult her new relationship, but he could see her defeat already. He felt the urge to hug her or to shout at everyone talking about, or both. Scorpius didn't trust himself to open his mouth so he left her alone. Rose noticed the lack of teasing, and while she was grateful for the one person not questioning her, she also found it suspicious and annoying to be coming from Scorpius of all people.

By her last lesson of the day, Rose had had enough. No one would leave her alone. It had come to the point of disrupting her defense against the dark arts lesson, and she left without a single word to Professor Lupin. She hid in the library until Wesley McLaggen found her. Just the smug look on his face made her want to punch him even more. Rose had also noticed that Felix Stirling had been following her all day with a sour pout.

"Look, Rose, today has been fun and I say that you should go out with me for real." McLaggen put on his charm, which Rose could see right through.

Rose didn't answer. And McLaggen began to see the danger of a quiet Rose. He wished she would shout at him or hex him into the oblivion. Her silence, while he laughed at it all day, finally scared him. As it had scared her cousins who had barely looked her in the eye all day.

"McLaggen, may I speak to you outside?" Rose said in a patronising and eerily calm tone which frightened Wesley even more.

Once they were away from anyone else Rose took a deep breath, sent an icy glare that could kill and slapped McLaggen on the cheek.

He barely had time to speak as Rose punched him in the stomach. He folded to the ground and hoped she would not hurt him again.

"I expect you won't tell anyone I did that. Being head girl, I really shouldn't have." Rose did regret what she had done, but it was nothing compared to what McLaggen felt after spreading rumours all day.

"Nope." McLaggen croaked. "Don't worry, no one has to know."

"Good." Rose sighed. "Also, ten points from Gryffindor-"

"Your own house-!"

"Yes my own house! I don't care right now! You deserve worse, and not just from me, but from every girl you've cheated on, slagged off or made to feel insecure about themselves. What is it you won't from us? Or do you just see all women as playthings? Half the girls in my old dorm think I slept with you. My friends think I'm a hypocrite for being a feminist and then going out with _you_ of all people. And my own brother doesn't know what to think of me! I saw his face at breakfast! He took one look at me and thought I had gone weak, sold out my morals for someone as degrading as you. I suggest you take a hard look at yourself Wesley McLaggen, and rethink how you treat women. When was the last time you dated someone without spreading horrible rumours about them, that ruin reputations? When was the last time you went out with someone and didn't cheat on them? And when was the last time you spoke to your friends without slandering another human being who didn't deserve it? You may not be a muggle hater, but you seem to enjoy putting people down and making them ashamed of who they are."

*"Look, Rose-"

"It's Granger-Weasley to you."

"Alright, well I'm sorry." Wesley could still feel the pain in his stomach.

Rose glared at him again, "I don't care. You're not sorry until you've proven it, until you've changed for the better. And I fear that someone as shallow as you can never change. Don't talk to me unless it's about prefect business."

Rose stormed off to the shared head common room. She was exhausted after a whole 24 hours build up of anxiety, anger and hatred. She collapsed on the sofa and fell asleep for a few hours. She slept through dinner and woke up to find that it was dark outside.

Scorpius sat on the sofa opposite her, looked irritated beyond what she usually expected to come from him when they were face to face.

"What do you want?" she groaned and rubbed her eyes.

Scorpius shrugged. "I heard that you made out with Wesley McLaggen on the second floor corridor and now everybody knows that you've been secretly dating." he said bitterly. "So my warning to you the other day just fell flat on dumb deaf ears. Bet you two had a right good chuckle at my stupidity when I told you to stay away from him. You just let me prattle away like an idiot!"

Rose grinned. She actually found herself amused for the first time that day. He was prattling away like an idiot again. "So that's what you think, huh? And do you believe every rumour you hear?"

"Only if it's about you." Scorpius muttered angrily

Rose's ears turned red, which made her angry again. It always made her angry how easily he made her ears go red. "Well I'm not dating him." she snapped. "There, a nice surprise for you. Do you want to know what really happened?" Rose stood and walked towards the stairs leading to her room. Before she went up she turned around to face the eagerly listening Scorpius. "It won't surprise you. I fell over, I tripped and he happened to be there. I thought maybe _you_ of all people would work it out." then she slammed her bedroom door and went to bed.

Scorpius knew that most people wouldn't believe that, they would see it just as an excuse. But he knew Rose well, nothing was as it seemed when it came to her and her clumsiness. He stared at the red tapestry covering the stairs. The golden lion stood strong and unmoved. Scorpius found himself wanting to follow Rose, to embrace her. He wanted to comfort her, to get rid of all the gossip and ridicule she had suffered that day. Scorpius frowned at himself, and was tempted to ignore these thoughts, but stopped himself. And continued to stare at the lion.

"Ok Scorpius, I know you're talking to yourself. And yeah, it's weird. But you need to search that big brain of yours." He muttered to himself. "What is this feeling? Why is it nice? Why is it terrifying? Why is it pointed at Weasley of all people?"

Nothing came to mind. After a few minutes, Scorpius gave up and went to bed. The young man's mind was confused by his heart, and his heart was hurting his head. And as someone who liked to listen to his head, the feeling, whatever it was, was frustrating.

 **NOVEMBER**

November began as an even bigger let down to Rose, than October had been. While everything appears fine, her grades were high and her head girl duties were completed in an organised manner, Rose always felt the end of each day hit her like a tonne of bricks. She spent time with friends and rarely argued with Scorpius, she took the tactic of not talking to him unless it was absolutely necessary, but still something made her agitated. Rose thought she was being ridiculous and buried whatever anger, irritation or disappointment, was thrown at her during the day.

And Rose hid everything very well. Those closest to her, the ones that usually spotted if something was up, like Lily, Lunette and Albus, thought Rose was quite content to be steering into her role in school. There was one person who saw her bottle everything up. Scorpius only noticed this as Rose had stopped arguing with him, calling him names, and responding to his insults, all together. It was unnerving, but as Lunette and Albus hadn't said anything, he thought it best not to bring it up. He did hate her after all, why should he care if she's happy or just faking it?

One Friday afternoon, Rose had potions with the Slytherins. As it was a NEWTs class, it was very small so most students had their own desks. Yet the potions professor still insisted on putting Rose and Scorpius next to each other. Rose was feeling the pressure from the potions teacher, he was mentally criticising everything each student did. But on that particular day he seemed to be trying to insult Rose more than usual.

"No, Miss Granger Weasley, you're doing it wrong. You have to actually be focussed to pull of this potion. I don't understand your struggle, Miss Tinker got it right away. Your skills are proving most disappointingly inferior to hers, and I thought you were supposed to be the smart one." He looked down his nose at her.

"Sorry sir, you're right, I'm just a bit distracted." Rose mumbed and the professor walked away.

"Kiss arse." Rose heard someone snigger from the corner of the room. She didn't acknowledge it. After years of being top of the class in most subjects, she was used to comments like that.

"Teacher's pet." someone else grumbled.

"Probably too busy thinking about McLaggen." Rose overheard yet another person say. Though a month had gone by, the rumours did not stop completely

Luckily the lesson was over soon and she packed up everything. Not speaking to a single soul, scared that her anger might bubble over into a rage she had never felt before.

Later, at dinner, Rose sat at the Gryffindor table eating toast, listening to Lily talk to Lunette who had joined them rather than sit with Albus. She did this every now and then so it was no surprise. And yet another occurrence happened which was not unusual. Some random sixth year guy scrounge up whatever guts he had and made his way to the Gryffindor table the attempt to flirt with Lunette. Even though she was happy with Albus, and everybody knew about their relationship, it did not keep a lot of guys from trying.

"Good evening Lunette, saw you across the room and realized we haven't spoken in awhile. I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me this weekend at Hogsmeade?"

Lunette frowned but remained pleasant as always. "Well, no, I'm going with Albus."

"Oh, you're still goin out with that-" he noticed the warning looks shot from Rose and Lily, then took the wise decision of not finishing his sentence. He lightly nudged Rose as if she weren't there and wedged himself between her and Lily, He leaned on one elbow and stared into Lily's eyes. "You have a pretty face, did you know that?" He tried to charm her but it wasn't working, so he simply went in for the kill. "So Lily, what are you up to this weekend?"

Lily rolled her eyes, "Just leave." she said bluntly.

The guy eventually sulked away. The three girls did not speak of it, the guy didn't deserve that attention. And by November, it was a regular thing for them to experience. Just a few hours later and Rose found herself ignoring Scorpius as she left the common room, on her way to quidditch practise. Scorpius frowned as the door closed behind her, he had noticed that she spent a lot more time in her room, alone. Rarely did he ever see her at her desk, instead she worked in her room. He wondered why no one else had noticed this, true it was harder for her to hide the burying of her feelings when sharing a living space with someone, but Scorpius thought that someone would see what was going on. Rose never went to the library anymore, Scorpius doubted anything bad had happened to Rose in one of her favourite places. She never went down to the Gryffindor common room, Scorpius knew that Albus would have told him if she was having a disagreement with one of her cousins. So whatever was wrong it could not have been that.

Scorpius's head was hurting, trying to understand what was up with Rose hurt his head. _I hate her, this shouldn't matter to me. I don't care._ He kept on repeating to himself. Though something in him new that he was lying.

Rose found that, as of late, quidditch was one of the few things that get a genuine smile out of her. She was able to see Ben and her cousins and play her favourite sport, and very well. She never missed a goal. Focussing on the quaffle meant that she didn't have to think about anything else, it relaxed her in a way that pushed down the frustration that had built up over the week. Of course, she thought it was releasing the tension she seemed to be feeling 24/7, but she was wrong.

On her way to quidditch, already running a bit late, Rose was stopped by professor Stockett. A teacher that had never really liked her, or any of her family for some reason unknown to them.

"Ah, head girl," she seemed bitter "escort this student to detention." Stockett didn't even look at Rose, who was in her quidditch kit, when she spoke.

"Actually professor, I've got to go to-"

"Good, I need a cup of a tea, it's been a long day. Your cousin, Louis, and his friend, kept on messing around. For some reason it's always _your_ family that makes everything difficult." Stockett, still not looking at Rose, grabbed the shoulder of the student standing behind her.

It was Lloyd Parkinson, a sixth year who had been raised to believe in the philosophy of pure-blood supremacy. And he hated Rose. She was the daughter of a muggle born and a so called traitor.

"I think that's an unfair generalisa-" tried to stand up to Stockett, ignoring the dark and disgusted look Parkinson was giving her.

"Of course, it must be the size of the family. With so many of you I suppose it's hard to give each child the attention they need." Stockett kept on talking.

"Professor, I assure you that even children of small families, this particular student for example, also cause interruptive and malicious havoc. Sometimes far worse than-" Rose grit her teeth, hoping she wouldn't burst out in anger to a teacher.

"Anyway," the professor completely ignored what Rose was saying and finally looked at her. She was momentarily confused by the quidditch kit, but decided to ignore that too. "take Parkinson to the potions classroom, the professor can give him a detention. Or to Professor Longbottom- actually no, not Longbottom, he's hopeless."

"I disagree, professor Longbottom is one of the-"

"Can't stop and chat, just do what I asked and stop dawdling." And with that, Stockett was gone and Rose was left with Parkinson. Who had suddenly decided that he liked professor Stockett, providing that she was pure-blood and not anything else. He made a mental note to check with his mother.

"I guess it's common opinion then, mudbloods and traitors aren't fit for anything. Stocket wouldn't even let you talk. That's 'cause no one cares about whatever garbage falls out of you mouth They may have made you head girl, but probably only out of pity. No one likes you or your filthy traitor family, they're all bent on destroying the wizard world." Parkinson spat at her, he had seen his opportunity to make snide and harmful comments, and took it.

"Shut up Parkinson, and twenty points from Slytherin." Rose remained a blank slate, she didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

"You can't do that." Parkinson was getting angrier.

"Yes I can, head girl. And you were insulting my family. I would have thought the wars drove out your barbaric and discriminatory way of seeing the world."

"Then you're just as stupid as all the other mudbloods." he grumbled bitterly "You're not one of us, you shouldn't be here. Just like you filthy mother." He would have said more but Rose had already led the way to the potions classroom in the dungeon.

Her knees felt weak, the strain of holding in so much anger. _How dare he speak that way about anyone?_

Rose pushed open the door and saw that the potions professor was not pleased to see her. "Professor, Stocket asked me to take Parkinson to you for his detention."

"Would you look at that, Miss Granger-Weasley can do something right today." the professor smirked before dragging Parkinson into the room. "Go now, and get into proper uniform. Some head girl you are."

Quidditch practise was meant to cheer her up. It was what Rose had been looking forward to all day. She had arrived late but no one seemed to mind. And then, just like that, practise was over too soon and Lily was walking up to the castle with Rose when Ben caught up with them. Rose liked the way his hair was messy after practise, and he always seemed to smile more.

"Hey Lily," he greeted them, but said nothing to Rose. Her heart flopped, she felt invisible. What made it slightly worse, was that Lunette was waiting for them by the castle doors. Rose would normally be happy to see her friend, but somehow she knew that she would fade even more with both Lily and Lunette there.

After greeting Lunette with a smile, Ben continued to speak to Lily "Is that new hair style?" .

Lily couldn't help but smile sheepishly despite herself. She had no idea of Rose's undecided feelings for Ben and only thought of him as a decent guy and a good captain. "Um, yeah, thanks for noticing."

Of course, Lunette knew how Rose felt about Ben and suddenly felt pity for her, and a slight dislike of Ben for not noticing.

"You look great." Ben smiled. "So do you Lunette, but then, I guess you both always look great. Not that that's all that matters, but, you know. Anyway, remember next quidditch practise is monday afternoon." Ben was about to walk away when he realised that Rose was there. "Oh, hey Rose. How's it going with McLaggen?"

Rose grit her teeth and resisted the urge to growl. "Don't go there." she muttered.

Ben laughed, not seeing how hurt she was, but that was mostly up to her hiding it. "Sorry, just a little joke. Well, I'll see you around."

"Yeah, bye." Rose mumbled again.

"Wait, are you mad at me? Or is this just usual Rose mad at the world for being stupid?" Ben still had a half smile, if she was in any other mood, Rose might have found him charming.

"I'm not angry with you Ben, why on earth would I be angry with you?" Rose forced a smile.

"I don't know, good point. Anyway, I'll see you lot around. Lily, fantastic practise today." he left and Rose wanted to disappear. She mentally laughed at herself, one minute she wanted to be noticed and the next she wished she could apparate within Hogwarts. Lily soon ran off because she spotted Hugo and Rose was left with Lunette, walking through the corridors and up the moving stairs. After some silence, Lunette eventually pulled Rose aside and spoke with pity that was belittling.

"Oh Rose, how could I only just see this, the guy this morning, other guys, and even Ben. Oh Rose, there's someone out there for you! Just, maybe not in Hogwarts."

Rose rolled her eyes, she knew what she was getting at and it wasn't making her feel any better. In fact, it just wound her up more. "Lunette, I don't care. I don't want random guys I barely know flirting with me. Stop feeling pity for me, when I should be feeling it for you."

"I know you don't want that, but surely it must just hurt you a little bit that Ben didn't pay you a compliment? If you really like him, wouldn't you be upset that he barely noticed you?"

"Look, I'm telling you that-"

"I mean, I know you don't like to feel things, but-"

"That doesn't mean that I have no feelings at all!" Rose felt as if she was going to burst. It was ridiculous that her best friend was implying that she didn't have actual feelings. "Lunette, just because I'm not the type of person who goes crying in the bathroom because her crush didn't pay her a compliment, doesn't mean I like him any more or any less than anyone else."

"But you don't even want him to know, or even want to ask him out. This can't be a proper crush, you can't actually like him as much as you think you do."

"You know what Lunette, I'll just forget you said that. I've got an essay to finish, I'll see you later."

"Wait, Rose, I'm sorry! I didn't mean-" Lunette tried to defend herself but Rose had already gone. She sighed and trudged down to the Hufflepuff common room where a game of exploding snap took her mind off the conversation.

Rose was in her room for a little while, trying to calm down, but she stubbed her toe on the foot of the bed and had to leave her room before she screamed at nothing. And so she settled down at her desk, Scorpius sat on the sofa, Rose couldn't concentrate. The events of the day raced through Rose's mind. Ignored by those paying attention to her pretty friends, the guy she liked flirting with her cousin, her best friend implying that she didn't have any real feelings, being put down and compared to her best friend by a teacher, not allowed to speak by another teacher who hated her, and having to endure the insults of herself and her family spoken directly to her face without being able to do anything about it. Rose felt an anger she had never felt the strength of before. Her fists clenched until her knuckles were white, her teeth were barred and her whole body went stiff. Every few moments Rose felt a new surge of frustration and rage which made her limbs tremble.

Scorpius gave a loud sigh and an annoying humming sound as he twirled a quill in his hand while writing a letter home.

"MERLIN'S BEARD CAN YOU STOP BEING IRRITATING FOR ONE SECOND!" Rose screamed at Scorpius from her desk.

Scorpius was confused, he hadn't done anything.

"What the hell Weasley? What have I done now?"

"I DON'T KNOW! YOU'RE BEING YOU AND IT'S FUCKING ANNOYING YOU LOATHSOME GARGOYLE!" Rose stood from her chair and gripped her wand in anger. Only a small part of her was telling her not to take her anger out on Malfoy.

"Weasley!" Scorpius jumped up, first the first time he was scared of what she might actually do to him. "I don't know what your problem is, but why don't you just go talk to someone? You've been more bitter than usual today. Everyone can tell. Just stop bothering me and complain to Lily or Lunette."

"Oh, you would like that wouldn't you?" Rose now had her wand pointed at Scorpius. He began to back away, his own wand was too far away to grab if he needed to defend himself.

"Or would you rather talk to one of them?! LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE? I AM SICK AND TIRED OF YOU MALFOY, I WISH YOU WOULD JUST DISAPPEAR FROM MY LIFE!"

Scorpius was backed up against the wall.

" _F-!_ " Rse stopped herself. She saw the fear in Scorpius's eyes, she had never seen that in him before. Rose realised that she must have been shouting louder and angrier than usual. She looked down at her own hand, her knuckles were white from gripping the wand in anger. Her hand was shaking and she felt as if she couldn't breath. She scared herself. Rose quickly dropped her wand on the floor and bolted for her room, Scorpius managed to catch her and hold her back.

"Let me go!" Rose shouted.

"Weasley, stop struggling!" Scorpius was trying to get her to sit on the sofa.

"No!"

Scorpius, still holding Rose to prevent her from running, angled his neck to look at her face.

"Don't look at me! Leave me alone!" Rose wriggled her way out of Scorpius's grasp.

She had been so scared of how angry she got, that Rose stopped breathing and collapsed before she made the tapestry hiding her door. Her hands hurt from being clenched all day. Her face ached from scowling. Her throat was sore from screaming. And the constant anger had made her head throb and ache. Rose's breaths were short and quick. Scorpius panicked. Rose seemed to be having sort of panic attack. He grabbed a couple of pillows from the sofa and a glass of water. He propped her up against the wall and surrounded her with the pillows. Her sprinted to his room, grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her as soon as he could. Rose didn't seem to be aware of any of this, she was focussing on trying to breath normally. Her eyes were shut. Scorpius was scared.

When Rose had calmed down, she noticed the blanket and wrapped it tightly around her. She took a shaky sigh and opened her eyes. Scorpius was staring at her.

"You scared me Weasley. I can't forgive for that."

She didn't realise that her panic had scared him more than her threat.

Rose nodded. She was embarrassed and really didn't want to apologise even though she knew that she had to. "I scared me too."

"That's why you stopped mid jinx?"

Rose nodded again.

"You were shaking. You couldn't breath for a little while. I know I'm not the best person to talk to, but I'm here right now." Scorpius shrugged.

"I was going to jinx you with the pimple jinx, but I was so angry that it might have sent you to the hospital wing. That's not what the head girl should do to anyone, let alone the head boy."

Scorpius squinted, he was trying to correctly calculate what she was saying. "Was that an apology?"

"Yes." Rose whispered, she took long gulps of water before speaking again. "Thanks." she put the water down and tried to ignore the tears she felt coming. "Why didn't you just let me run to my room and deal with this myself?"

Scorpius shrugged again. "You were shaking."

"You've said that." her voice wobbled.

"I know, but what you said was 'running', what I saw was like a baby deer trying to walk for the first time. And I didn't grab you for no reason, I saw that you were falling so I caught you. And, I didn't know what you might do to yourself if I left you alone." Scorpius looked her deeply in the eyes with all the concern he felt. "You scared the shit out of me Weasley. I need an explanation."

Rose was shaking again. Scorpius stood to get another blanket, but her sudden tears stopped him.

"I've wanted to be head girl for as long as I can remember. This is not how a head girl should act."

Scorpius sat back down and wrapped one arm around her.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." she whispered between sobs.

"It's ok, you stopped yourself from doing any damage to me, I'm just scared that you might hurt yourself."

"I don't want to hurt you, I never wanted to hurt anybody. I'm the worst head girl ever, my temper and lack of patience is going to be the end of me one day."

"Don't say that, don't be down on yourself. You know that you're a great head girl, it's just stressful." Scorpius felt his heart thump louder as he watched Rose fiddle with the corner of his blanket and tears fall down her cheeks, he felt a protectiveness of her that he had felt before. "Do you mind telling me what happened today?"

Rose shuffled herself and took a deep breath.

"It's stupid and petty, and I hate that today bothered me so much." she sighed. "Last year, Lily grew up a lot and everybody noticed. Lunette is one quarter veela so everybody notices her. They are two of my best friends and I love them. They also both happen to be the prettiest girls in school. I know looks shouldn't matter, and it never really has to me. But today guys flirted with Lily and Lunette. I stood there, not being noticed, even by someone I call my friend. I was just ignored. I'm always seen as second best to both of them and it's getting tiring. Even the potions professor compared me to Lunette, you heard that, I'll never be as well-liked as her. I'm tired of being ignored, I'm tired of being undermined, unappreciated and I'm tired of being a third wheel wherever I go. Whether if it was back when I hung out with you and Al, or Al and Lunette, or whenever I'm with Phil and Mel or with Lunette and Lily. I felt like all my hard work to get good grades has been for nothing. I'm not saying that I get good grades because I want people to notice me, but I realised that a lot of people only take the time to know you if you're pretty like Lunette or Lily. Again, please don't get me wrong, I know Lily and Lunette are so much more than just pretty, they're smart and brave and loyal and kind, I could go on, but people seem to only want to see the outside of someone, not the inside. I know this is a stereotypical teenage girl problem, and I'm ashamed that it got me so angry. That was bad enough to make me feel frustrated and low, actually that feeling started when the rumours about me and McLaggen were going around the school and people judged me like I was a piece of dirt even though none of it was true. But then Parkinson said horrible things about my mum and my family again, and that pushed to the edge." Rose's lip trembled, and her apologetic eyes turned to Scorpius. "And I was going to take it out on you."

Scorpius nodded slowly. "Wow, so this is frustration built up over a long time? This sort of frustration would be more than enough to make anyone depressed, not that depression needs a reason, but, you know. Look, image is important to a lot of people. And what you were saying was just a 'teenage girl problem' is also a 'teenage boy' problem. People like first impressions, and what you look like with the very first impression you give before you open your mouth or even move a muscle. It sucks. And I just hope that when you apply for a job, your hard work will speak for itself and that whoever is interviewing you is fair."

"But we can't control who interviews us."

"True, but why would you want to work for someone who values appearance over experience, dedication and brains."

"Good point Mr Malfoy." Rose tried to smile, her tears had tried and her face felt puffy.

"Why thank you Miss Granger-Weasley." Scorpius smiled back. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine. I just need to sleep it off and I'll be great tomorrow."

Scorpius wasn't entirely convinced. He tilted his head and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "Then why are you smiling that way?" he took a gentle hold of her hand.

"What way?" Rose was surprised with herself, she didn't mind him holding her hand, she actually quite liked it.

"It's alright to cry again if you need to." Scorpius shuffled closer to her.

Rose's snatched her hand away. "I don't need to-" but she saw the concern in his eyes and the tears spilled out again despite herself. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know I could be so angry."

Scorpius hugged Rose tighter and gently stroked her hair. "Hey, it's fine."

"But I scared you." Rose said through sobs.

"I was more scared that you were going to hurt yourself going up those stairs."

Rose sniffed and her tears slowed. She leant back out of Scorpius's hug and looked him in the eyes again. "You won't tell anybody about this, will you? People think I'm strong and emotionally balanced. I'm head girl and I can't afford to have off days."

"Alright," Scorpius wiped a tear from her cheek and settled her head back to rest on his chest. "Calm down, I don't think anybody needs to know. Everybody is allowed off days and that doesn't make you weak."

Rose smiled. They may not get along most of the time, but Scorpius was one of the few people that she could rely on not to break his word.

"And thanks for coming to your senses before you sent that jinx, I fully believe that I would've been in the hospital wing for over a week.".

"You are very welcome." her tears had finally stopped, but she was exhausted.

Scorpius reached into his pocket and pulled out two sweets he handed one to Rose. "Peppermint sweet?"

Rose's ears turned red. "Peppermint?"

"Yeah, would you like one?"

Rose's cheeks even turned redder. "I should go to bed." she suddenly looked down to see his blanket was wrapped around her. "Is this yours?"

Scorpius nodded and rearranged the pillows behind her to try and make it more comfortable but his hand got stuck when she relaxed again and Rose rested her hurting head on his shoulder.

He gulped. "Do you feel better?"

"Yes, much much better. I could fall asleep like this." Her tired eyes flew open. "I- I mean, umm, because I'm so tired and exhausted, I could, I guess sleep anywhere." Her ears were on fire. "I'm going to bed." she threw the blanket over Scorpius's head and ran off the her room and slammed the door.

Scorpius was left staring at an empty heap of pillows where Rose had been as he folded up the blanket. He could still feel her head on his shoulder and her smaller hand in his. Scorpius picked up the peppermint sweet from the floor where it had fell and went back to his room, tossing it into the large jar full of them on his windowsill.

He knew Rose hadn't told him the whole story. That had to be more to her anger, it was Rose after all, things were never skin deep when it came to her.

Rose collapsed on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She was contemplating whether or not she should have told Scorpius about the insults of her family from both Stockett and Lloyd Parkinson. She knew that Scorpius was also rather defensive of her family when it came to heinous insults of so-called blood status. Rose knew it to be because Scorpius was so close to Albus, that Al was his only friend for a long time, and remained like a brother to him. Of course, she was only half correct. There was another person he was defensive for.

...

The next day, being a Saturday, Rose decided to sleep in. Scorpius hadn't slept at all, his mind ran through every little detail of the night before. How worried he was when she could barely walk, how she had opened up to him. How she let him tuck hair behind her ear, hold her hand and let him hug her. She had cried on his chest, she had leant on his shoulder and her ears turned red when she admitted that she was comfortable cuddling with him. Scorpius felt himself smiling about Rose for most of the day. Then he thought, as she had not exited her room, that perhaps she was embarrassed. Scorpius knew that bringing it up would make her more embarrassed, and so he left her to herself. She needed the sleep afterall, she had cried so easily in front of him and that hadn't happened in a long while, he doubted if anyone else had seen her cry.

By 9am he watched lots of students walk to Hogsmeade, he spotted Albus as Lunette holding hands and smiled down at them. He was happy for his friends, but sometimes it left him feeling lonely. He's eyes unconsciously drifted to the tapestry hiding the stairs to Rose's room. He began to wonder if she was lonely too.

Scorpius snapped himself out of those thoughts. 'I don't want to think about Weasley in that way. I hate her! Don't I? Do I hate her?' Just as his mind was running around in circles, he saw his owl, Vincent, swoop into the owlery. He decided that a trip up to the owlery would be a nice distraction from Rose.

Scorpius went to the kitchens first, he took a couple of slices of toast and wrapped up a croissant for later. He had just reached the entrance hall, when someone called out his name.

"Malfoy!"

Scorpius grit his teeth, he had started to really hate it when people called him that. "What?" he groaned as he slowly turned around. Ben Rome, Scorpius recognised him as the Gryffindor quidditch captain.

"Umm, are you off to Hogsmeade?"

"No." Scopus said in a dull voice, he didn't really feel like talking to anyone.

"Oh, right." Ben was obviously wanting to ask something else.

Rolling his eyes, Scorpius turned around to leave but Ben stopped him again.

"Umm, Rose hasn't got a date or anything? Is, is she at Hogsmeade?"

Scorpius sighed and turned around again, to his surprise, Ben had gone bright red and was obviously very nervous. "Weasley is in her room, why? You want to ask her out? You're leaving it pretty late, everybody has already gone." Scorpius put on a calm voice and pretended not to care, even though his head was screaming at him.

"Well, I was going to ask her, I've been trying to all week, but I just couldn't get my words out."

Scorpius had no idea why Ben was being so open about it, and it irritated him. Not that he showed it. "I can go and get her. If you just wait by the stairs, technically you're not allowed in the head common room, or in our rooms, so..."

"That would be great! I'll just wait in the corridor." Ben was suddenly full of nervous smiled and followed Scorpius up to the fifth floor.

Scorius made him wait by the stairs, so that that tapestry was out of view and he wouldn't hear the password.

Rose had been almost drifting back to sleep, when she was rudely interrupted by a knock on her door. Angrily she swung it open to see an annoyed Scorpius.

"Look, quidditch guy wants to talk to you about Hogsmeade. Go easy on him, he's so nervous he might explode." Scorpius tried to say it with a smirk but instead it came out bitter.

Rose rubbed her eyes and yawned. "What?"

"Just to go the fifth floor stairs, what's-his-face Rome is there."

Rose, still in her pajamas, threw on her jumper with a large R on it, and trudged down the hall. To her surprise, Ben Rome was there. She wished she had brushed her hair, and her teeth, before leaving her room.

"Hey Rose, I know it's late, but I was wondering if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me today?"

Rose's head instantly said yes, but she forced herself to seem skeptical. "Why did you leave it so late? Did someone cancel on you? Because I don't want to be a replacement date."

"No, no! I tried to ask you, a few times, but whenever I saw I just couldn't get the words out. I guess last minute, I knew I should ask you now or never."

Rose smiled. "I'm glad it was now rather than never. Let me just get dressed."

Ben beamed at her in delight. Once Rose had reached the common room, and shut the door, she bolted up to her room, frantically getting dressed as quickly as she could. Needless to say she fell over and dropped to many things to count. Scorpius sat on the sofa in the common room, trying to read his book. But every few minutes he heard Rose shout ' _ow'_ from her room as something was knocked on the floor. He found it quite amusing. Wanting to see the mess for himself, Scorpius thought of a little plan.

Rose heard another small knock on her door, while she was still in her pyjama top but had only just put on her jeans, she figured that she was decent enough to open the door. She didn't realise the state of her room.

Scorpius grinned at the piles of clothes and knocked over stacks of books. "Here, breakfast." He threw the croissant he had grabbed earlier, on to her bed and sniggered as he left her alone.

Rolling her eyes, but still suspiciously grateful for the breakfast, Rose munched away at the croissant. Waving her wand around cleaning up everything she had knocked over in the hurry.

Rose looked once more in the mirror and took a deep breath. Her hair was in a messy knot on top of her head, it made her look more mature. She made an effort with her makeup, she wore her fancy watch. Her Gryffindor scarf went well with her jeans. Her knee length boots made her calves look thinner and her green t-shirt and navy blue hoodie combo was very 'Rose'. But her favourite part of this carefully selected outfit was her long black coat. It cut off just above the knees and was ridiculously comfortable as well as complimentary to her figure.

"Calm down Rose, no need to be nervous, Just be yourself and hopefully it will all go well." Rose said to herself. She picked up her bag from her bed, spun around, swishing her coat and giving her a satisfied feeling and hopped down the steps.

Scorpius was laying in the sofa when Rose confidently pushed through the red tapestry that covered the door to her room. She spun around to look out the window at the grey November sky. There were still a few spots of blue sky in the distance, today wouldn't be so bad weather wise.

Scorpius suddenly sat up, amazed at what he saw. Rose Granger-Weasley cleaned up nicely. Winter clothes and autumn colours agreed with her.

"You look pretty, you're always pretty." Scorpius mumbled as he gaped at her.

"What?" Rose genuinely had not heard what he had said.

His cheeks turned a pale pink and he spoke quickly to cover up is accidental compliment. "I said you look shitty, Weasel. Now good night." Scorpius jumped up in panic.

"It's 10am you prat."

"Piss off." Scorpius practically sprinted up to his room, not believing what he said. And out loud especially. His heart was beating fast. 'I hate Weasley, why would I think she looks pretty?!' It unnerved him how often he began to question his hatred for her. Rose had gone off with Ben. Scorpius couldn't get her smile out of his head. It was enchanting, even without the minimal makeup or well thought out outfit, it had been the smile that had caught Scorpius off guard. It had been the smile that made her look prettier than usual, and it was the smile that Scorpius couldn't get out of his head. The only thing that suddenly ruined is image, was the nagging reminder that Rose's smile wasn't for him. It was for Ben.

By 11am, Scorpius was bored. And all he could think about was whether or not he actually hated Rose. He decide that going to Hogsmeade alone, wasn't the worst way to spend a saturday afterall. And Lunette and Albus had told him time and time again that he was always welcome to join them.

However, meeting his best friends in the Three Broomsticks, did not get his mind off Rose. She and Ben happened to be there, laughing, having a good time getting to know each other. While Scorpius had to stop himself from rolling his eyes every five seconds.

Albus had just bought them three butterbeers, when he spotted Rose and Ben. "Merlin, what is she doing dating him?" Albus mumbled to Scorpius.

Lunette rolled her eyes, she really was the only one who knew about Rose's confused feelings.

"I don't know," Scorpius shrugged. "He's nice, smart and into quidditch. He's just like me, but I'm better." Scorpius forced a small cocky grin even though he felt confusion as he felt a pain spreading across his chest as he watched Rose smile.

Albus scoffed, not realising Scorpius's expertly hidden pain. "How are you nice? Last week you called her a buck tooth orangutan."

"Only because she called me bleached blonde ferret first!" Scorpius defended himself.

"But you're the one who _gave_ her the buck teeth!"

"And she made my books attack me. So we're even. Now, what were we talking about?"

Albus chuckled and rolled his eyes.

"So, are they dating now?" Albus asked Lunette.

She shrugged. "It certainly looks like it, but this is just the first date. Who knows how it will play out." Lunette glared at Scorpius suspiciously, she could see the cogs turning in his mind. "And don't you dare try and mess it up for, no matter what confused feelings you have for her!"

Scorpius eyes widened. How did Lunette know? Albus was just confused and got stuck into his butterbeer.

"I do not have confused feelings-" Scorpius started.

Lunette snorted. "Yeah, right. Do I have to brew some Veritaserum? Because you know that I can!"

Scorpius sighed. "Fine, I won't do anything to Weasley." He almost told them about the incident the night before, where Rose had cried on his shoulder, opened up to him, and was grateful for his presence. But he instantly decided that he couldn't say anything. First of all, it would embarrass Rose. And secondly, it was a memory of her that only he wanted to keep, it was one of those precious moments that he had with Rose, one that he held dear. And he didn't know why.

"You alright Scorp?" Albus's voice cut into Scorpius's thoughts. "We lost you for a second there. What are you thinking about?"

Scorpius blinked slowly as his mind raced for an excuse. "Oh, I was just think about this book I wanted to get, last time I was in a muggle store. But I didn't have any muggle money with me and the shopkeeper was looking at me suspiciously."

Albus nodded, accepting the lie. It wasn't an unusual thing to say, for Scorpius. It was well known that he loved muggle books, but Lunette suspected that it wasn't the truth. She watched her friend on a date and she looked genuinely happy, then she peeked a look a Scorpius. Lunette knew something was up, she just didn't know what. And she started to realise, that whatever was up with Scorpius, he didn't know what it was either. Albus simply sat drinking his butterbeer, happily oblivious to his girlfriend's detective cogs churning, his best friend's heart ache confusing his head, and his cousin happiness of a new boyfriend even though she had a niggling idea that her feelings were not as strong as she had believed them the be.

As afternoon drew nearer, students began to leave Hogsmeade. Albus and Lunette had dragged Scorpius all over the village and he found himself too exhausted to think about Rose. They began walking up to the castle before it got dark. Rose and Ben walking ahead of them. Albus looked suspiciously at Lunette's determined eyes watching the back of Rose's head.

"Lunette, what's wrong?" Albus said cautiously.

"I need to appologise to Rose." Her tone matched her expression.

Albus nodded, Lunette had been so upset that morning before they left for the village. She had cried a little, telling Albus everything she had said to Rose, excluding the name of the guy Rose liked. Lunette may tell Albus everything, but she would never give away a friend's secret. But after Albus had seen Rose with Ben, he knew who it was. Albus looked over at Scorpius, who he expected to be confused by the conversation, but realised that Scorpius seemed to know exactly what was going on. And Albus wasn't going to beat around the bush.

"How do you know?"

Scorpius was surprised to hear the question, but knew exactly what Albus was referring to. "It doesn't matter, I just know." He said bluntly. Just as he had hoped, Albus took the answer and didn't ask anymore questions.

Albus had the feeling that he was too out of touch with his cousin. Rose had been his best friend for so long, but recently all he heard from her was through Lunette, or through Scorpius complaining.

Lunette increased her pace, leaving Albus and Scorpius behind, they started talking about muggle studies homework. Lunette saddled up beside Rose who was startled to see her friend beside her. Rose tripped on her own foot but didn't fall over. Ben laughed, Lunette glared at him. They were nearing the castle doors.

"Ben, I need to speak to Rose..." Lunette hinted.

"Ah, right." Ben understood that he was meant to disappear. "Well, I'll see you around Rose." he took her hand and gave a gently squeeze as he smiled at her. Then he jogged up to the castle.

Rose's ears turned red, and for the moment she was happy.

"Rose, I need to talk to you." Lunette's guilt flooded her voice.

Rose sighed and looked at her friend. "Yeah, we do." but they didn't speak until they reached the castle, and Rose found that it was quiet outside the library. Most students were either turning from Hogsmeade, going to dinner, or both. "About yesterday," Rose started. "I-"

"I'm so sorry. I was wrong. And I was even more wrong to say it to your face." Lunette interrupted, she felt tears coming on again. "Of course you have feelings, I didn't mean to say that. You're just so good at hiding them sometimes, that I get confused and think that you're some kind of robot." Lunette was interrupted this time. Rose had started to laugh.

"Emotionless robot?" Rose chuckled. "Great." she said sarcastically. She stopped laughing when she saw that Lunette was crying. "Sorry. I was in a bad mood yesterday, a really _really_ bad mood. And what you said didn't help, it hurt and it added to my anger. And you know me, if there's one emotion I know really well, it's anger. But I should've known you didn't mean it, I wasn't thinking straight."

Lunette sniffed and stopped crying. "Ok, now don't be mad at me, but-" she finished her sentence with a big hug enveloping Rose.

Rose's arms lay limp and awkward beside her side for a while, until the prolonged hug became too uncomfortable for her.

"I'm not letting go until you hug me back." Lunette mumbled into her shoulder.

Rose smiled and let out a small laughed, then hugged her friend back. It felt good, Rose rarely hugged anyone, she forgot how nice a hug could be. Though she still didn't want to get into the habit of hugging on a regular basis.

The abrupt grugle of Lunette's hungry stomach finally put an end to the hug.

"We're good right? Because I need food."

"We're good, it's pretty much impossible to stay mad at you."

Lunette scoffed. "You're just say that-"

"No, I'm serious. As soon as I walked away yesterday, I was angrier at myself than I was at you. I was annoyed because I didn't want to be annoyed with you."

Lunette raised one eyebrow before pulling Rose into a hug again.

"Lunette!" Rose couldn't breath. "Come on, we've already hugged-"

"Hush, save the moment." Lunette tried to sound serious but both of them ended up laughing. Eventually Rose pushed her best friend off her and they made their way to the great hall. "So, how was your date with Ben?"

Rose's ears turned red again. "It was nice, it was really really nice."

Lunette thought something was missing, but she didn't want to fight again. "Nice enough for a second date?"

Rose smiled. "Definitely, if we end up dating properly, I think he'll be the first boyfriend I actually liked. Felix was just because I felt bad saying no, and Dan- I actually don't know why I ever went out with Dan." Rose frowned, she vaguely remembered trying to spite Scorpius and his disapproval of Dan, 'but he disapproves with every guy I talk about, even McLaggen, who I'm pretty sure I hate more than he does.' Rose thought to herself.

"Albus was like that, he was the first guy I stopped to think about before agreeing to go out. Every other guy I dated, I didn't really mind if our friendship disintegrated. But Albus, I liked him so much that I never wanted to hurt him. I thought, if we don't go out, I can't hurt him, and I like him so much, that I don't mind only being his friend. That was stupid, I mean, just being friends would have hurt both of us."

Rose forced herself not to say 'well, duh.' instead she just nodded and smiled. Once in the hall, Lunette ran off to the Hufflepuff tabel to sit beside her friends, and Rose spotted Ben who had saved her a seat next to him. She didn't see Scorpius scowling at the back of her head, or Albus sending an amused but suspicious look to Scorpius.

 **DECEMBER**

December came very quickly, Rose had had few more dates with Ben and soon became a well known couple around the school. Rose was happier than she had been, walking around the castle with Ben, getting into the routine of homework and head girl duties. But as soon as she reached the head common room, she deflated and she was quiet. Lunette and Albus noticed, while Rose seemed happier in her relationship, Scorpius's mood became darker and darker. He did little else but study, he rarely smiled and he never bothered to join in on conversations between them. The only time he seemed to relax, was when he went back the the head common room every evening.

Everytime Rose was sitting with Ben, enjoying her time with the only guy she had dated who she actually liked, Scorpius would be tense. He would snap at Albus, who knew that his best friend didn't mean it, but it was still hard to stay positive.

"He's miserable, Albus. What can we do?" Lunette let out an exasperated sigh one night and she and Albus were sitting together in the Hufflepuff common room.

"He always gets annoyed when Rose is dating someone." Albus said absently.

"Why can't they just be open about their feelings?"

"Because-"

"No, I know why. They don't know they even have these feelings." Lunette stretched and yawned. "This sucks, Ben is a really nice guy. He's good for Rose."

"Well, he's better than her previous boyfriends." Albus thought of Felix Stirling who's only here because he grandfather won't let him run the family business without at least one NEWT, and then of Daniel Leyton who had tried for a few professional quidditch teams but failed, and in embarrassment, hadn't turned up to continue his schooling. "Ben and Rose have things in common."

"Yes, but, weren't we like that? Before we dated, we treated each other well and had things in common." Lunette could see that Albus didn't know what she was getting at. "We were friends, but we only started having more feelings for each other because, I don't know, there was chemistry. There was a spark between us, something that our friends saw that we didn't."

"Oh, right. And you're saying that you don't see anything romantic between Rose and Ben?"

Lunette felt bad for saying it, but she always spoke her mind around Albus. "No. Do you?"

Albus sighed. "No."

The last day of classes before the holidays began, night came very quickly and Scorpius found himself walking outside through the dark, up to his ankles in snow. And the snow persisted to fall heavily, and he didn't mind. He hadn't been feeling like himself for a long. Suddenly he heard voices, and the sound of someone crying.

"You pathetic little mudblood. You're so weak, you're crying. You don't belong here." Lloyd Parkinson spat at a first year. "Run back to your scum family and leave the more deserving to take our world."

"Parkinson!" Scorpius shouted. "Fifty points from Slytherin."

Lloyd scoffed. "You think I really care about house points?"

"No, but your fellow Slytherins do, they'll not be happy with you. Now leave this kid alone, he's nothing to you." Scorpius pushed passed Lloyd and picked up the kid by his elbow, "Go back to your common room. Tomorrow go and tell your head of house what happened. If you need me to help you, just come and find me at breakfast at the Slytherin table. If we're lucky, the teachers will be good enough to expel this git."

He handed him a peppermint sweet from his pocket. The first year gave a weak and watery smile to Scorpius, and then ran as fast as he could. Scorpius turned back to Lloyd. "That's enough, I will not have you bullying anyone else. If you're not expelled by the end of the week, I'm giving you detention everyday for two months. Maybe even the rest of the year if I can. Your beliefs are outdated and cruel. Worse than cruel, they started two wars. People died, people were tortured, people were hurt, and it broke up families and friendships because of this ridiculous belief."

"Oh yeah? You want to see hurt, you love muggles so much, why don't you drop your wand and we settle this right now." Lloyd snarled.

Scorpius was about to reach into his robe to grand his wand, when Lloyd punched him in the nose, and then again in the stomach. By the time Lloyd had delivered the third punch to Scorpius's eye, out of nowhere, three of Lloyd's friends arrived. One pinned Scorpius's arms behind his back, while Lloyd punched him again in the ribs. Scorpius was in so much pain, he fell to the ground as soon as he was let go, then the kicking began and they shouted at him.

"Traitor!"

"Mudblood lover!"

"You're a disgrace to your family!"

"The scum of all purebloods!"

Then, as quickly as they appeared, all of Lloyd's friends ran back into the castle. He snarled at Scorpius, doubled over in pain, laying limp in the freezing snow. He could feel blood in his mouth and running from his nose, staining the snow that fell faster and faster. Lloyd quickly placed a full body bind on Scorpius and ran after his friends, a horrible laugh echoing outside. Scorpius couldn't move, he was terrified. To die outside of Hogwarts, freezing cold, was not what he wanted. All he could hope for was one of the teachers to discover him. Or even a student outside of curfew. Anyone, he just needed anyone. And it was getting darker and darker. Scorpius hated the dark.

Rose had been working late on an essay due for care of magical creatures. Her eyes were strained as she only had a candle and the fireplace to light up the common room. She out down her quill and looked around the room, it didn't look as though Scorpius had been back since he left for breakfast. Rose frowned, something was up. He was always at his desk working, or on the sofa reading.

Worry began to set in, her heart was beating fast as panic ingrained itself in her mind. She couldn't shake the feeling that something had happened.

"No, I don't care. This is Malfoy, he can take care of himself. I'm just tried and over thinking about someone I don't even like." Rose had to speak out loud, her head was too worried just to keep it up there. But saying out loud didn't help, it just made her feel bad. Rose looked out the window, it was snowing heavily. She grabbed her winter cloak and her wand and took one last peek out the window before she started charging around the castle to look for the head boy. But then she spotted it, Lloyd Parkinson laughing in gruesomely sinister way as he dashed into the castle. Rose's nostrils flared, she could guess where Scorpius was.

Rose rushed down the flights of stairs, tripping down most of them, but at least she got to the next floor quicker. She silently cursed the fact that the common room was on the fifth floor. She heard someone call out her name from the floor below, she happened to be on the second floor by then.

It was Ben.

"Hey Rose! Where are you off to?" he asked cheerfully.

But Rose ignored him, she didn't want to talk to him or anyone, she just had to find Malfoy. Ben noticed that Rose had a wild and angry look in her eye that he wouldn't cross if he didn't have to. Ben was one of the last people to go to bed, and so barely anyone saw Rose running through the castle, panic giving her a headache.

She finally reached the entrance doors and pushed them open. She searched around the edge of the castle. Rose's heart stopped when she was the stiff figure in the snow. As she hastily approached, she saw the beginnings of bruises on Scorpius's face and cuts on his arms with blood seeping into his robes and staining the white snow with a few dark drops of blood. He wasn't wearing a coat and his robe was ripped.

"Malfoy!" she shouted in his face, desperately hoping that he would respond. She shook him gently and realised that he must be constrained by a full body binding curse. She unjinxed him. Rose took hold of Scorpius's hands, threw his arm over her shoulder, and dragged him to the castle, leaving a long trail in the snow. She tried not to pull him too hard and was careful not the hold him by the forearms as both appeared to he bruised. But that meant holding onto his midsection which seemed to hurt just as much. Once she reached the castle steps, Rose was confronted by another problem, how to get him in the castle.

Rose took a deep breath and tried talking to Scorpius again but he was barely conscious. She took another deep breath and suddenly remembered the most obvious thing. Rose could have kicked herself.

"Bloody hell, I'm a witch." she muttered with gritted teeth and rolled her eyes at her own stupidity, she was glad that no one else was around to see or hear her. It was the sort of thing her father would laugh at and mention again how similar to her mother she really was.

Remembering that she could use a levitation charm, Rose gently raised Scorpius and used her wand to guide him inside.

At first, Rose thought to rush Scorpius to the hospital wing, but she glanced back at his chest and her eyes were caught by the head boy badge. If the headmaster found out that Scorpius had been in a fight, then Scorpius would no longer be allowed to hold the position and there was the possibility of him being expelled. Rose, with a floating Scorpius who was grumbling from the pain, made it to the head student rooms without running into anyone. Upon later reflection, Rose realised that as it was 11pm and most were in bed, the ghosts were celebrating one of their death days, and Peeves had had a grin all day which let everyone know that he planned to ruin the ghost's party, so she wouldn't have come across anyone anyway. Technically, she thought to herself, the head boy and girl should have been patrolling the corridors. They were both preoccupied at the time.

Yet another problem arose as the head boy and girl reached the shared room. Rose knew that she couldn't just leave Scorpius on the sofa but she also couldn't take him to his own room. The door would not open for her unless Scorpius said the password and he was unavailable to do anything. He was, for that moment, a floating body following her wand. Rose had no option but to take him to her room and settle him in her bed. She took off his shoes and socks and took of his school robes, it was all soaking wet from the snow and had the odd circle of a bloody stain. She refused to take off his underwear. They both needed some dignity left. What bleeding there had been, had slowed massively. She took out the first aid kit from her trunk that her Muggle grandfather had given her as a joke, but the bandages were quickly applied to Scorpius. She made a metal note to learn the charm that produced bandages straight from the wand. As he was mostly naked in her bedroom, Rose decided that they both needed some privacy too. She laid a couple of blankets, taken from the study room, on the bed before resting him on top of them and more blankets piled on top of him before she added the duvet and released him of her levitation charm. She flicked her wand and lit the fire, Scorpius was still so cold. Rose heard Scorpius groan, she hushed him soothingly and he fell asleep.

Satisfied that she had gotten Scorpius as warm as she could, Rose went about trying to figure out where she would sleep. She wanted to stay in the room incase he woke up. So Rose positioned the armchair by the window to face the bed she took a spare pillow and blanket and attempted to make herself comfortable. However, sleep never came. Rose was anxious for Scorpius and watched him breath in and out and occasionally shivver.

It was deep into the night, or very early in the morning, depending on how you look at it, when Scorpius groaned in agony again and then opened his eyes. Rose shot up quickly and sat beside him. Scorpius squinted and looked around the room which he vaguely recognised but knew that it was somewhere he hadn't been to often enough or stayed in long enough to feel secure.

"Where am I?" Scorpius croaked. He ached all over and couldn't decide if he was too hot or cold.

"My room, you were pretty much out of it and only you can say the password to let me into your room."

Scorpius blinked slowly, trying to process the information, but even that hurt.

"Out of curiosity, what is your password?"

"Umm, I, I bothered, I mean, I trust you enough- known you for so long." Scorpius managed to mumbled through his dazed state. He felt his eyes drooping again as he slowly moved his arm and realised that he was only wearing his underwear. "Where are my clothes?"

Rose started to feel bad for putting a password on her door, especially one that meant go away. She looked at his face, it was almost fuzzy, and remembered he had asked her a question.

"I had to take them off," Rose's ears turned red and she looked away from him. "They were wet, they're now drying by the fire but you'll need to mend or buy a new robe."

Scorpius, who normally found joy when Rose blushed, didn't notice. He was in agony and was too drowsy to completely comprehend what was going on. He asked more questions, he felt the need to fight sleep for as long as he could so that he could understand the situation he was in. "How long have I-?"

Rose interrupted. "You've been asleep for about four hours. It's three in the morning, go back to sleep."

"Where are you sleeping?"

Rose looked over at the small armchair with a blanket covering one side and a pillow crudely balancing on the armrest. "That doesn't matter go back to sleep."

"How did you get me in the castle?" Scorpius asked sleepily.

Rose rolled her eyes but answered anyway, thinking that if she kept him talking long enough, it might just drop him off back to sleep. "I had to drag you in, and you're quite heavy you know. You owe me."She stood up and returned to her armchair.

"Why not use a levitation charm?"

Rose's ears turned red. She had panicked when she saw Scorpius in the snow. "Just because! Alright! I mean, I did, eventually, I only remembered that I could do magic when I got to the stairs. Now be grateful and go-" she spun around to see Scorpius asleep again. She smiled despite herself, 'he's kind of cute when he's resting- no! I refuse to think this!'

Later in the day, when Scorpius properly woke up, Rose nipped down to the kitchens and brought up a bowl of hot soup. She gently propped Scorpius up using pillows to support his injured back and placed the bowl on his lap.

Scorpius was still feeling disorientated thanks to the beating he had received, being left to freeze in the snow, and by the fact that Rose was being nice and overly concerned about him. He felt a need for Rose to return to her usual snappy self. "You know, soup isn't my favourite food."

Rose grit her teeth and rolled her eyes. "I couldn't care less about what your favourite food is. You're ill, you're injured, you will eat the soup I gave you. It will warm you, it's not meant to be a treat."

Scorpius shut up and drank to soup quickly and gratefully. "For the record, I like custard, a lot. I like it more than I should, I could just eat it out of the bowl with nothing else." Rose wasn't listening but he continued and did not stop to think why on earth he was telling her. "And I like peppermint sweets, always have in my pockets for some reason, but I rarely buy them."

The mention of peppermint got Rose's attention and so she quickly changed the subject. "Are you warm enough?" Rose asked with concern in her eyes again.

Scorpius nodded in reply.

"Good."

She shuffled his pillows again so that he could lay down. Scorpius caught her scent of freshly cut grass and something kind of flowery. He wondered if it was the perfume she used. He was also happy to find that her pillow smelled of new parchment, he could barely guess how much letter writing or homework she did before sleeping.

"Go back to sleep Malfoy." Rose said gently. "You need to recover so that I can shout at you."

"I've been to sleep for way too long, I need to get up-"

"No!" Rose snapped at him, then continued in a softer voice that sounded as if she were desperately pleading him. "You need to rest, you haven't seen all your bruises, I have. And you were laying in the snow for, what,? Two hours, maybe. I saw Parkinson and his friends running back inside the castle but it took me a while to find you. You were freezing when I brought you in. Just sleep now." her voice full of worry disorientated Scorpius even more, so he argued back.

"I won't be able to sleep, I've stayed still for too long!"

Rose stood and grabbed to empty soup bowl and made her way to the door. "Fine, you can use this time to think about your reckless behaviour, the head boy shouldn't be getting in fights. What would happen if the headmaster found out? Did you ever think of-" Rose stopped and turned around, Scorpius was fast asleep again. She smiled at him and took the bowl downstairs, before returning to the armchair in her room to re-read _Pride and Prejudice_ while keeping an eye on him.

Scorpius woke up hours later, still in Rose's room but she wasn't there anymore. His whole body still ached, but he had warmed up a lot. The was a timid knock on the door.

"Malfoy? Are you awake?" Rose whispered.

He found that he could only grunt in reply. Sleep had somehow made him more tired, his body to his very bones.

Rose let herself in and sat on the edge of the bed, Scorpius sat up and his head started spinning.

"Al and Lunette are downstairs, they're really worried about you. Do you think you could make it down the steps?"

Scorpius nodded. Rose handed him a dressing gown and Scorpius took it gratefully, he only realised that it was his own when he put one hand in the pocket and found it full of peppermint sweets. He looked up at Rose, but she replied without him having to ask.

"Last night you told me that you don't have a password for your room, so I just got a few of your things."

Scorpius took hold of Rose's arm when it was given, and together they slowly descended the steps.

"You better not trip, I don't think I can handle anymore bruises." Scorpius mumbled sarcastically.

Rose rolled her eyes, but still smiled. "Oh look who's still got his sense of humour."

"Scorpius!" Lunette shouted and ran to her friend, but stopped before she hugged him. "Scorp, why does this always happen to you? Why are you the only one to get hurt."

"I'm not always hurt." Scorpius argued as he painfully settled himself on the sofa next to Albus. "Hey Al."

"Hey." Albus greeted him with a worried smile.

"You are always hurt!" Luette continued. "Last year that quidditch match!"

"Alright, that's twice, name another."

Lunette frowned, she wanted to say how many time he was emotionally hurt as well, but with Rose in the room she couldn't do that "Well twice is too many!"

"Parkinson punched him at the start of the year as well." Rose muttered, her arms folded in anger, she was agreeing with Lunette's worried shrills.

"See! Too many times!" Lunette frowned. "Hang on, the start of the year? Neither of you told me about that."

"Ok, ok," Albus tried to calm her, "You're not his mother."

"Ah, speaking of, has anyone contacted his parents? And why isn't he in the hospital wing?" Lunette asked.

Rose explained to them exactly what happened, as Scorpius's eyes were dropping. "And I haven't told his family yet, I thought Al could as they know him better."

"Great, thanks." Albus mumbled sarcastically.

Rose stood and gave him some parchment and a quill. "Pocket will take it if you like, she's been circling this tower for a while now." They all looked out the window to see Rose's owl perched on the sill. "I think she knows that something is up."

"Why were you even out that late?" Lunette asked Scorpius.

He tried to shrug, but that hurt too. "I wanted to walk around in the snow." He looked at Rose and tried not to make his sigh too audible. "I needed to clear my mind."

Rose spoke up next. "Lunette, do you have anymore bruise removal paste? I used up the last of mine the other day." Albus raised his eyebrows as to ask what happened. Rose rolled her eyes. "I was on my way to meet Ben, when I walked into the stair banister on the third floor. It didn't hurt, but I found a bruise on my hip that night."

The other two tried to stop themselves from laughing, hearing Rose's clumsy antics were always entertaining. Scorpius was lightly sleeping on the sofa.

"Rose," Albus's voice full of concern for his best friend. "How bad was it? Really?"

Rose sat down next the Lunette, watching Scorpius the entire time. It hurt her deeply to see Scorpius so beaten up and drowsy. "It's bad." Rose muttered. "He has bruises everywhere, luckily nothing was broken, except his nose, but I fixed it when he was asleep. The bruises on his eyes have gotten darker since I brought him in, his shins and his shoulder look really bad, but nothing compared to his ribs. His back is ok, I think someone must have held him back while the others attacked from the front. Also, there are still marks on him from that quidditch incident last year. They were meant to fade after a few weeks but I think some of those scars might stay with him forever."

"How long was he out there, before you arrived?"

Rose didn't look at Lunette while she answered the question. Her whole body facing Scorpius, unmoved. "A while, an hour, maybe two. He was cold to the bone when I finally found him. He was shivering all night, he said that he was warm enough but I'm not sure I believe him."

"I'll see if I can get some calming draft from the hospital wing, or make it myself if no one will give it to me." Lunette thought out loud.

"Good, he's slept enough, maybe you could get some bruise removal paste fr-" Rose nodded.

"I meant for you, Rose." Lunette interrupted.

"What?" Rose suddenly looked up from the sleeping Scorpius and at her concerned friend and cousin.

Albus leant forward and gently placed his hand on her arm. "Rose, you're so pale. Scorpius is in pain, yes, but at least sleep and rest is helping him. You're being so good to him. But don't forget to take care of yourself too."

"I'm fine." Rose said bluntly.

"No you're not." Albus was trying to be stern. "Have you slept at all? And actually, if Scorp's been in your bed, where have you been sleeping?" He looked around the common room, not a single pillow was out of place.

Albus had got her there. Rose begrudgingly answered. "I have an armchair in my room, by the window. With a pillow and a blanket, it's really not that bad-"

"Have you slept or not?" Lunette pushed Albus's question.

"No." Rose was finally honest.

"I think this has shocked you more than it has Scorpius." Albus looked back at his injured friend. "If he's sleeping, he's not worried about himself or what happened. That might change once he's recovered a bit. At the moment you're more worried than he is."

Rose slumped her shoulders, and finally let her self relax on the sofa. She sighed, "Why should I even care?" she she muttered, mostly to herself.

Lunette and Albus shared a look, they knew why Rose cared. Understanding that it was a rhetorical question, they stayed silent. What no one had realised, was that Scorpius had woken up just as Rose had told them where she was sleeping, and how she wasn't sleeping at all.

In an instant, Scorpius suddenly knew his heart a little better. 'I don't hate her at all. I never did, I never have.' was all that Scorpius could think clearly as his mind raced with memories of Rose. His eyes stayed closed but his breathing quickened. This alerted Albus who gently shook him awake.

"Scorp, are you alright? You sound like you're hyperventilating." Albus was panicked, Lunette had rushed to the sofa where they were sat.

Scorpius slowly opened his eyes and sat up. He stared in amazement at Rose, who watched him anxiously. "I'm fine, I think." he mumbled. His face turned pink, his head began to hurt and he suddenly found himself too hot. "I should go to bed." Scorpius found that his bruises were making it hard to breathe, now that he had slept some more, his pain was no longer overpowered by drowsiness. "I'm not tired, I just need to lay down."

Albus grabbed his arm and led him towards Rose's room.

"No, I can go to my own room now."

Lunette bit her lip and looked to Rose to intervene. Albus shook his head and Rose answered.

"Your room is too cold, Malfoy. The hearth has been on in my room, all day and all night. You'd be better in my room, you have to stay warm." Rose said calmly, though she didn't feel calm at all. She saw that Scorpius didn't realise how much weight he was putting on Albums in order to stand.

"I'm not putting you out of your own bed again-" Scorpius began to argue.

"You're not putting me out of my bed, I put you there in the first place. And you're staying there until you're well enough to walk on your own!" Rose was stern this time, only raising her voice a little.

"Look, Weasley, you don't have to be a hero in front of you friends. I can just-"

"I'm not being a hero! I'm being a decent human being, the only way I can help you get well again, is to make you sleep in my room. Stop questioning me, stop thinking that you're a nuisance and stop thinking that you aren't as ill as you actually are!" Rose's nerves were taking hold of her temper. "I'll light the fire in your room, that will take a while to warm up so for now go back to mine."

"Ok, thank you." he said softly.

It surprised Rose and her anger seemed to melt with no explanation. Scorpius didn't like it when she was angry with him, it suddenly felt unnatural. 'Merlin, realising that you don't hate someone, really makes it hard to be ok with them shouting at you.' Scorpius thought as Albus led him back up the stairs. Scorpius had to go through the door on his own as Albus wouldn't be able to get into Rose's room. That was when Scorpius felt what Rose meant. If he thought it was painful to move before, it was almost impossible without support. His muscles ached, he felt sharp pains all over his chest and his feet didn't want to move. He stumbled into the room and fell onto Rose's bed, even the soft mattress hurt.

"We'll go to the hospital wing now to get that draft and bruise removal paste." Scorpius heard Lunette say.

"Rose, promise me you'll get some sleep, even if it's on the sofa." Albus's voice drifted up the stairs.

"I'll sleep tonight, no matter how little sleep I've got, I think midday is kind of a bad time to throw off my sleeping pattern." Rose made her excuses as Albus left, but Lunette hung around for a few moments more.

Scorpius heard every word.

"Rose, should I tell Ben? I mean, he would want to see you. And maybe that fact that the guy you supposedly hate is sleeping in your bed, isn't something to hide from your boyfriend."

"Ben doesn't need to know, he'll just say the same thing as you guys, that I need to sleep. I'm sure my eyes looks terrible." Rose sounded irritated.

"He's your boyfriend and he cares about you. Why can't I tell him? I mean, if he comes up you won't be alone all day."

"I'm not alone, I've got Malfoy to keep from hurting himself again. And I don't need to see Ben everyday, we're not as close as you and Al. I need my space sometimes, you know?."

"When was the last time you saw Ben?"

"Saw him? Or speak to him? Because I saw him as I went to get Malfoy, and he spoke to me from across the hall, but I didn't answer."

Lunette rolled her eyes. "Rose Minerva, when was the last time you had a conversation with your boyfriend?"

Rose shrugged. "Two days ago, maybe. I've been swamped with homework and he's been busy with quidditch-"

"Was the conversation a good one?"

"Oh, yeah, it was. He was asking what I was up to over the holidays and I said that I spent the whole time with just my family and-"

Lunette slapped her palm to her forehead in mock dispare for her friend. "He was asking if you wanted to meet up with him over the holidays!"

"What? No he wasn't-"

"Yes he was, he was just being subtle about it because he wanted to see if _you_ wanted to meet up."

Rose groaned, "Shit, I should've picked up on that. I finally date a decent guy and I treat him like crap."

Lunette laughed. "You're not that bad, just compare yourself to how your ex boyfriends treated you, and believe me, you'll feel a lot better about yourself. I'll see you in a bit."

Scorpius hadn't realised that he had fallen asleep, until he woke up around dinner time. He looked at Rose's clock beside the bed and heard his stomach growl. It was snowing again, Scorpius could see it through the crack in the curtains, he could hear the wind howling through the dark sky. He thought about the holidays, everyone would be getting the train home in the morning, and Scorpius was meant to be on that train. But whether or not he was, depended on how quickly bruise removal paste worked. He knew that he slept through Lunette and Albus returning with the claiming drafts, Pepperup Potion and paste that they promised to get, little bottles and and viles sat on the windowsill. Yet the sound of irritated voices drifted up the stairs again, which made Scorpius wonder who on earth was in the common room.

"I just came to check on you." Ben tried to sound sweet.

"I don't need checking on, I'm fine." Rose said through gritted teeth.

"I know that, but the rumour was that Malfoy is ill and your taking care of him. Which is ridiculous, right? I mean why would you take care of someone you hate?" Ben tone turned more accusational.

"I'm not taking care of him, Malfoy is a big boy, he can take care of himself." Rose snapped. "And I don't like my boyfriend being so distrustful of me-"

"Not distrustful!" Ben put his hands up in defense. "I trust you, I don't trust Malfoy, what if he tries something with you?"

"He hates me!" Rose let her temper go. "He's not going to _try_ anything! And even if he did, ill or not, he would find himself thrown across the room with green hair sprouting all over his skin and slugs pouring out of his mouth!"

"Alright, alright, I get it." Ben calmed down and sat on the sofa. "I don't feel like we've seen each other for a while."

Rose sighed and sat beside him. "I know, I know. It's probably my fault, keeping myself busy and all that." she turned to him and kissed his cheek. "Look, why don't we meet up at some point over the holidays, I should've said earlier but-" Rose shrugged. "I don't know, my head is all over the place."

Ben tipped her chin up and kissed her. "It's alright, I'll leave you alone for now, I think we both need a little space. I need to pack as well. I'll write to you when I get home, I need to ask my parents what their plans are for the holidays, I don't want to have to cancel on you because I forgot family stuff." Ben stood and went to the door. "But I'm holding you to this date, and after the holidays, we really need to start making more of an effort to be together."

Rose kissed Ben's cheek one more time before he left, and smiled as he walked down the hall whistling to himself. She was exhausted, Rose caught sight of her reflection in the windows, the bags under her eyes had grown phenomenally. She looked so tired and stressed. She was so tired and stressed.

Scorpius hobbling down her stairs, his pain not very well hidden, caught Rose's attention.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm hungry and I should really start packing if I'm going home tomorrow." Scorpius grumbled.

"I've already packed for you."

"You- what?"

"Yeah, you were dead to the world. So I went in your room, shoved everything I could find into a trunk, brought it down here and Lunette and Al helped me pack it neatly for you." Rose said bluntly.

The sudden urge to hug Rose, was fought valiantly in Scorpius's mind. So he just blinked.

"And I put the fire on in your room so that you can sleep in there tonight." Rose continued. "And we've missed dinner, but I'm going to sneak down to the kitchens in a minute to get some food."

"Why are you taking care of me?"

Rose shrugged. "Don't be mistaken, I still hate you and I don't pity you either. But there's no one else that can help, so it's up me to ignore my urge to shout at you every five seconds, and just get on with it. And, I kind of get the feeling that you would to do the same if I was the one who was injured."

Scorpius slowly sat down. "Well, thanks." he mumbled, the bruise removal paste was beginning to work, he ached less and less by the minute.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Don't say thank you! It makes it seem like I'm being nice to you!"

Scorpius frowned. "But you are being nice to me."

"Well, I don't _want_ to be!"

"You know what, I'm going to bed." Scorpius limped off to his own room, the pain from his bruises had dulled, bit his ankle gave him a sharp pain despite not being broken or sprained. The room was colder, just Rose had warned him, but it wasn't so bad. Everything felt empty and lonely and less personal, without Rose there.

Half an hour later, and Scorpius heard a loud knock on the door. Once he finally got himself out of bed and opened the door, Rose wasn't there, but she had left his dinner and a big bowl of custard. There was also a fishbowl with only a few inches of clear water in it and a red rose petal floating on top.

Before he ate, Scorpius inspected the fishbowl. It was an odd thing to leave on his doorstep. Just as he was about to get up and ask Rose about it, the petal began to fall through the water, almost to the bottom. But the petal stopped. And in one smooth motion, the rose petal transformed itself into a fish, which gave one curious look at Scorpius and then continued swimming around his bowl. Scorpius smiled at the fish. It was truly enchanting, the beautiful magic Rose could do. He picked up the fish bowl and placed it on his window sill. Hidden under his bed, Scorpius found Rose's old copy of _Alice in Wonderland_ , and propped it up next to the fishbowl. In elegant printed script, the name Lewis Carroll, jumped out at him. Crouching down to watch the fish gracefully move about, Scorpius decided to name him Lewis.

"Lewis, that fits you, right?" Scorpius spoke to his new pet. The fish either ignored him or didn't understand that he was being spoken to. Scorpius decided that it was the latter that more likely to be true. It was a fish after all.

By the time Scorpius had woken up the next morning, Rose was already making her way to the train station in Hogsmeade. Scorpius saw her out of his window, walking beside Ben she looked happy. Scorpius figured that they must have had a better conversation since the one the day before. He double checked his packed trunk and made his way down to the entrance hall, where Albus and Lunette were waiting for him.

 **CHRISTMAS. POTTER'S HOUSE.**

James had arrived late in the night, and so the whole Potter family had had barely any sleep. It was midday before anyone even bothered to get out of bed. But they had plans to meet up with the rest of the family at the Burrow. When Harry finally woke up, he gently shook Ginny and knocked on all of his children's bedroom doors.

He sighed, he was finally starting his holiday from work, but it would be over sooner than he knew it. Harry kept on going over the argument with Ginny, that had become quite frequent over the past month. Ginny knew that he needed some time off work, but Harry wasn't listening.

Harry trudged down the stairs and sat at the kitchen table. His headache just from thinking about all the paperwork mounting on his desk at the ministry. He finally noticed a fish bowl sitting right in front of him, a few inches of clear water filled it and the single petal from a lily floated. Suddenly, as if it knew Harry was watching, the petal began to sink. But just before it reached the bottom of the bowl, the petal turned into a fish. Harry's heart was full, he remembered his old professor Slughorn telling him the story of how his mother, Lily, had given the professor exactly the same gift.

"Ginny!" Harry called for her up stairs, he couldn't take his eyes off the bowl.

Ginny came rushing in thinking that something was wrong, seeing only a fishbowl on the table and Harry's excited smile, she sighed in relief.

"Ginny, did you do this?" Harry pointed to the little fish.

Ginny smiled at he husband's fascination with a fish. "No, must have been on of the kids."

"What have we done now?" Albus groaned as he entered the kitchen, Lily and James close on his heels. They noticed the fish bowl. "Since when do we have a fish?"

"Which one of you did this?" Harry asked them.

Lily put up her hand, timidly, unsure if she was in trouble or not. "I just wanted to try it, I wasn't sure if it would even work."

Before Lily had finished her sentence, she found her father's arms wrapped around her. He was smiling wider than they had seen for a while, they had gotten used to Harry being stressed 24/7.

"It's wonderful Lily, I've been told that my mother could do the same thing." Harry looked up, Ginny was so pleased to see him smiling again, after about a month of work wearing him down. Harry waved his arms as an invitation for the to all join in the family embrace. "I often forget how lucky I am to have a family like you. I love you, I hope you know that."

Ginny kissed his cheek once they had all let go. "Of course we know that."

"Who taught you to do that Lily?" James asked.

"Who do you think? Rose, she's brilliant. She said that dad might appreciate it"

"Francis, I think I'll name him Francis."

Lily laughed. "That's a weird name, but alright." She hugged her dad one more time. "I saw Rose making one the other day, she wouldn't tell me who it was for, but I asked her to show me how."

Albus frowned in confusion. "Why wouldn't she tell you who it was for?" Albus asked an hour later, after they had all eaten breakfast and he had the chance to drag Lily away from his parents earshot.

Lily shrugged. "I just guessed it was for Ben."

"But if it was for Ben, wouldn't she say so?"

"Who else would she give it to?" Lily had become just as suspicious as Albus.

"I'm not sure." Albus didn't say that he strongly suspected that Scorpius had been given a fish. He made a mental note to ask his friend when he next saw him, which would be Boxing Day. And Lunette would be interested to know, it she didn't know already.

"What are you two whispering about?" Harry walked into Albus and Lily, "Come on, we've got to go. Hermione will get at us for being late if we don't leave soon."

 **BOXING DAY, GRANGER-WEASLEY HOUSE**

Rose stretched lazily on the sofa, her book laying limply in her hand. Ron and Hugo were in a highly intense and very competitive game of chess, and Hermione was writing a thank you letter to Neville for the wonderful blueish-purple flowered plant. It was an Aconite plant, which was where wolfsbane and monkshood came from, essential for potion making.

Hermione sighed, "I know I've said this quite a few times today, but do be careful not to touch, or even go near, the Aconite plant. Neville did warn us that the leaves are toxic. He'll never forgive himself if one of us gets hurt."

"Kind of a dangerous present for him, that's not like Neville." Ron mumbled.

"Oh, of course it is. It's a useful plant, we might need to make some-"

"Wolfsbane potion." Rose filled in for her mother, then smiled at her surprise at being beaten to the point.

Hermione frowned, not at Rose, but at the mention of the potion. "Yes, well, let's hope not."

Ron and Hugo looked up with dumb expressions.

"Ok, let's pretend for a second, that all of us know what Wolfsbane potion is and how it has anything to do with some plant with toxic leaves." Hugo spoke up in a sarcastic tone. "Nope," he shook his head. "I can't even pretend to know. Do you, Dad?"

Ron shrugged. "Hey, I'm not the one still at school here, you are."

Rose laughed and accioed her third year potions book. Once it was in her hand, she tossed it to Hugo. "Here, read a book for once in your life."

"It's not fair that she gets to use magic outside of school and I don't." Hugo huffed.

Rose shrugged. "I am older than you." she said smugly.

"Rosie, be nice." Hermione absently warned without looking up from her letter.

Hugo stuck his tongue out at Rose, something which Hermione didn't see, but could guess what he was doing.

"And Hugo, don't make me freeze your tongue where it is. They're meant to stay inside your head, let's keep it that way."

"Rosie!" Ron spoke up with a warning tone, "I know your mum said it, but don't you dare freeze your brother's tongue." He raised his eyebrows at his daughter whose wand had only moved an inch before he knew what she had wanted to do.

Rose sighed. "Fine." She grinned cheekily at Ron, and then they all went back to their lazy evening activities.

They were interrupted by a cough from the kitchen. The family suddenly sat up and looked at one another, everyone that was meant to be in the house at 9pm, was sitting in the living room. They dashed to the door and saw that there was nothing to fear, but much to be confused about.

"Lunette?!" Rose ran to her friend who was dusting ash and soot off of her after a not so pleasant ride through the floo network.

When Lunette looked up at the family, they could see that she had been crying and was on the verge of doing it again. Rose took her into the living room, while Ron started making tea and Hermione brought her a damp cloth to get rid of the remaining soot, and a tissue to dry her eyes.

"Lunette, what's wrong?"

Lunette faked a smile, it was not a convincing one, her voice wobbled as she spoke. "What? Can't I visit my best friend?"

"Of course you can, but you don't normally turn up in the evening of Boxing day, while crying."

Tears burst from Lunette once again, her harsh sobs prompted Rose's family to stay out of the way in the kitchen while Rose hugged her best friend. She felt exceedingly uncomfortable and awkward. Rose was never good when someone started crying, and she rarely hugged anyone. But she knew that her own discomfort didn't matter, not as long as her friend was in distress.

The tears stopped falling heavily after a few minutes, and Rose was able to talk to Lunette again.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Lunette sniffed and took a deep breath. "My grandparents surprised us with a visit."

"Oh no," Rose muttered, knowing how difficult Lunette found her grandparents and the way they treated her and her family.

Lunette continued, a tone of bitterness and anger came through her wobbly voice, something which Rose had rarely heard from her. "My mother told them about Albus, you should've heard her, the way she talked about him. I didn't know that she didn't like Albus until a few hours ago. And then, because mother only shows how she really feels through manipulation and passive aggressive comments, she let my grandparents shout at me. I was forbidden to date him! Forbidden! As if we were back in the Middle Ages and I'm the property of my family who choose what I do and who I see." Lunette's bottom lip trembled, "My father left the room for a moment, and my grandmother was about to hit me, but he came back. He told them to get out, but they wouldn't and so my father tried to pull me away from them, but my grandfather shouted at him. My father was so angry-" Lunette started sobbing again.

Rose held Lunette tighter, wishing that she could ease the pain somehow. Or at least hex Lunette's family into the oblivion without consequences.

"Rose my father left!" Luentte squeaked.

"Oh, Lunette." Rose's heart ached for her friend, she didn't know what to do. All she knew was to hold her and not let her go.

"He took one pitiful look at me, and stormed out, saying that he couldn't be part of the family if my grandparents were going to act this way. My mother was shocked, my grandfather didn't care and my grandmother started ranting about how she had always thought him a weak and pathetic man. By then I had had enough, I left without saying a word. I know an old witch up the road, she let me use her floo network. I can't go to Albus with this, he's at Scorpius's anyway. And I can't burden him with my family, they're my problem not his." Lunette sniffed, then clung on to Rose. "I don't know what to do now."

Rose took a deep breath. "Are you going back home?"

Lunette's watery eyes looked up at her best friend. "I'm sorry, I couldn't think of anywhere else to go. I shouldn't have presumed-"

"Lunette," Rose hushed and reassured her. "I just wanted to know if you were planning on going back tonight. If you were, I would have advised against it. Of course you're staying here. As long as you need. Our home is your home." She looked passed the tears and saw that Lunette was exhausted. "I think, for now, you should get some sleep. Then in the morning, hopefully we'll have clearer heads and more information on your dad. Maybe it was a misunderstanding."

"Maybe." Lunette mumbled. "But he never got along with my mother's family, they didn't like him and that was the main reason he started looking for a job in England. To get away from them. I've seen him burn letters so I wouldn't be hurt by them, and speak to my mother about moving house. I think he would go back to America, if I weren't so happy at Hogwarts." She finished with a yawn.

Rose led the way to her bedroom, gave Lunette a spare pair of pyjamas and remade her bed with cleaner sheets. Ron helped by levitating a mattress down from the attic, for Rose to sleep on the floor. While Hermione wrote a letter to the Potters, explaining what happened. And Hugo made them all mugs of hot chocolate before bed.

Lunette fell asleep almost instantly, and that was no surprise. She had had a sudden shock, an emotionally draining day. But Rose stayed awake all night, wondering what on earth she could do or say to help her friend. She made a mental list of what she knew she could do: give her a safe place to stay while she needed it; provide clothes; let her cry without judgement, she was in for a frustrating and emotional time; and give her time. That was it, she wasn't sure if it was just tiredness, but Rose couldn't think of anything else.

At 3am, there was a small knock on Rose's bedroom door. She threw on her dressing gown and quietly answered. It was Hugo. And he looked like he wanted to talk. She nodded with understanding and they snuck down to the living room and sat opposite each other.

"What can we do Rose? I know she's your friend, but I want to help too. I feel so useless." Hugo chewed his lip. "I mean, she's Al's girlfriend and your best friend, she's practically part of the family."

Rose stared at him, mouth open as if she started to say something but stopped. It took her awhile, but she finally answered. "I'll do anything she needs or asks for, but other than that, I don't know. We can't fix this, it's between Lunette and her family, we can't get involved."

"Stay at the sidelines and support her?"

"I think that's all we can do."

"Give her time Rose, let's give her time." Hugo sighed. "Has her dad actually left them?"

"Lunette seems to think so, she knows him better than we do."

"If there's anything I can do, please tell me." Hugo pleaded, Rose could see the innocence and goodness in him. It made her proud to be his big sister.

The next morning, Lunette woke up late and joined the Granger-Weasley family for breakfast. They were all quiet.

"You don't have to tiptoe around me." Lunette spoke up. "I appreciate everything you've done, and I think I can find a place to stay-"

Before Rose could argue, Ron spoke up.

"You're staying here Lunette, you're really no trouble at all and we rather like you."

Hermione smiled. "You've been a good friend to our Rosie, the least we can do is help when you need it."

"Thank you." Lunette tried to smile, Rose could see her trying to not cry.

Rose stood and hugged her friend again, that was all it took for Lunette to cry once again.

"He didn't really leave? Did he?" Lunette muttered through sobs, she didn't want to believe it. "He loves me, and I thought that he loved my mother. Look at your parents Rose, they obvious still love each other. And I thought my parents loved each other too, but the look on my father's face, when my mother wouldn't stand up for me, when I couldn't stand up for myself- he- he wouldn't leave us, would he?"

Hermione placed a gentle hand on Lunette's shoulder. "I don't know, but, if you want, Harry and I are his bosses, we could try and find him. Ask for his side of what happened, and then maybe it would give you more information."

Lunette sniffed. "You would do that?"

"Only if you want me to, if not, I can stay out of it." Hermione smiled.

"Thank you," Lunette sighed with relief. "I'd like to know where he is and what he is doing. And if he's ok."

Rose let go of Lunette and the two of them went back to her room, they sat on the bed and stared out the window.

Lunette was in a melancholy mood, her hair had turned the colour of soot and her eyes were so dark, they were almost black. Even her skin had turned a dull grey. She didn't look like her usual self.

"The funny thing is," she startled Rose by speaking after an hour of silence, "I've thought about it before. You know, what if my father left us. I suppose, when I was young, I could see the love between my parents, but now I'm older, I think that whatever was there, is gone. I always assumed, that if my father left, he would take me. Or if my mother left, I would stay. Either way, I always thought my father would fight to keep me with him. I was wrong."

"You did say that, before he left, he tried to take you with him." Rose nudged.

"Yes, but he let go and left."

"Doesn't that prove that you weren't completely wrong. His first instinct was to take you."

Lunette flopped on the bed and laid her head on Rose's knees. "I don't know what I would do without your friendship Rose."

Rose smiled. "You'd probably have better fitting clothes."

Lunette managed to laugh, the clothes she had borrowed from Rose were quite baggy. That was partly because Lunette was so slim, and partly because Rose liked her clothes baggy.

"I'd do anything for you, and I know you would do anything for me." Rose stifled a yawn, the lack of sleep trying to catch up with her.

By 10am, Albus had turned up and he and Lunette were sitting outside, holding one another. Lunette sniffed and stopped crying completely in his arms.

"I'm just going to get a tissue, my nose if runny." Lunette kissed Albus on the cheek before running inside.

Suddenly there was a loud crack and someone had apparated to Rose's back garden, just in front of Albus.

"Scorp! What are you doing here? Uncle Ron and Rose and not going to be happy to see you." Albus stood in surprise.

"I know, but right now I don't care how much they hate me. Lunette is one of my best friends and I want to help her if I can." Scorpius seemed out of breath in his panic.

"Malfoy? What are you doing here?!" Rose ran out of her house, her irritation levels rising at the sight of him.

"I'm here to help Lunette."

"Scorp!" Lunette tried to smile at him as she followed Rose out of the house. She took him by surprise with a hug.

"Is there anything you need me to do?"

Lunette looked up at him, a sneaky gleam in her eye. "Actually," she took a deep breath, "Your family have quite a few connections, don't they?"

"Umm, I guess."

"I'm not trying to insinuate anything about your family, but I need you to do some quiet snooping around. Only if you feel comfortable with it! If not, I guess it doesn't matter."

"I would do anything for one of my friends." He couldn't help but let his eyes wander to Rose, she had a dark expression, he knew that by turning up at her house he had crossed her barrier, but they both cared too much about Lunette to argue.

"I would've asked Rose or Albus's parents, but if they start looking into it, people will notice. But with your family- no offense-"

"It's fine, really." Scorpius smiled reassuringly. "What do you need me to find out?"

"How my grandparents found out where we live. We never moved house since coming to England, and they have visited before. But my father set up enchantments to protect us from intruders, and scrambled our address so only people we want to visit can know where we are. Not even my mother should have been able to tell them our address."

Scorpius nodded. "I'm on it. If I have to get my parents involved to help-"

"That's fine, I trust your parents."

"Ok, I'll be back as soon as I have something. Al, take care of her mate. And Weasley, you're a good friend." He apparted on the spot before Rose fully took on what he had said.

Despite herself, Rose's ears turned red and she hide them quickly with her bushy hair. Lunette had seen. Having calmed down from the shock of what had happened, she couldn't help but feel a little hopeful that Rose and Scorpius would get along someday.

The rest of the day was spent in anxiety. While Ron helped Hermione make enquiries to some of her employees, Albus, Rose and Hugo tried to cheer up Lunette.

"We could try ride our brooms for a while." Rose suggested, but one look outside and the sky look as though it threatened to snow at any point.

"Chess?" Hugo suggested next, but his only reply was unamused expressions from his cousins.

"What do you want to do?" Albus asked Lunette.

Lunette, who had been pacing in the living room, suddenly sat down in a huff on the sofa. "I want to talk to my father. But that might take a while to come about."

Albus sighed and placed a gently hand on her cheek. "Why don't you try taking a nap? I know Rose said that you fell asleep quickly last night, but yesterday is still fresh in your mind and stressing you out. You've exhausted your emotions and you're very stressed."

Lunette chewed her lip for a while and then hugged Albus, "That's a good plan." Lunette slumped off to Rose's bedroom, Rose hot on her heels.

"Hey, before you go to sleep, I had an idea that might help. I found a notebook that I thought you might want to use to write down your thoughts. Like a diary of sorts. I know that emotions and stuff are running wild in your mind right now, so putting them down somewhere, organised and in one place, might help you try to make sense of things. And then, if you want, we can burn the notebook. Which would be fun and get rid of the risk that anyone would read it."

Rose watched her friend begin to tear up once again.

"Thank you." Lunette took the book and put it under her pillow. "You're so thoughtful and nice, and I'm so tired and stressed that I'm just overwhelmed, by everything."

"I'll wake you up if there are any developments." Rose smiled and left her friend alone.

Lunette slept almost all day, she didn't hear Hermione and Ron running in and out of the house, following up tips and leads. Nor did she hear Hugo and Rose setting up a camping bed in Hugo's room for Albus to spend the night. They had all agreed, much to Albus's relief, that Lunette would want him there.

Dinner was almost ready by the time there was an urgent knock on the door. This woke Lunette up straight away and she ran downstairs in Rose's pyjamas and dressing gown that was too baggy. She hadn't realised how hungry she was until she could smell the Christmas food leftovers being reheated in a frying pan, Bubble and Squeak was for dinner that night. By the time Lunette reached the back door, the visitor had been welcomed in by Hugo.

Rose and Albus emerged from the living room and took their places beside Lunette. Both feeling apprehensive as to what might take place.

"Lunette!" Mr Tinker called out to her with a smile on his face. "Oh, my girl, I was so worried about you."

He held out his arms, but dropped them hopelessly soon enough. Rose, who had not met Mr Tinker before, could really hear his American accent coming through. He had a face that showed he had once been handsome but years of overworking himself had taken its toll. But the way he held himself had the same positive and observant manner as Lunette. Mr Tinker's hair was bright purple, only a dulling grey around the edges. He had gotten used to his metamorphmagus powers, so his emotions didn't get carried away with his appearance changing. Unlike Lunette who had tried so hard to suppress it when she was young. While she could change at will, that was not very often and her skin and hair, in particular, often reacted to her feelings.

Lunette took a step forward, as if she was about to run to him. But she stopped. Her limbs shaking and a weak smile fading too fast. The other occupants of the room left, but Lunette grabbed hold of Rose and Albus's arms. They nodded to one another and stayed by Lunette's side.

"What happened?" Lunette dived in head first. Her tone was harsh.

Mr Tinker's smile dropped. "Lunette, I know it's hard to hear, but you grandparents aren't the best of people-"

"Do you think I'm stupid?" she frowned. "I'm not a child, stop treating me like one. I came to realise that they weren't good influences, years before we left France. To be honest, I wondered why we stayed there for so long. Moving to England seems to be the only good decisions you've made for this family, so far. And now you're just up and leaving? Knowing full well that by doing that, you're leaving me with people who, despite blood relation, don't care about my happiness or well being. Just as long as they get what they want."

"You mom loves you, you know that?"

"Yes," Lunette softened, "no- I don't know anymore. I always thought if you ever left that you would take me with you."

Guilt trickled into Mr Tinker's expression. "You've thought about me leaving before?"

Lunette gulped and nodded. "You shouldn't stay with mum just for my sake. Like I said, I'm not a child anymore. And when I was a child, I saw more than you realised."

"It's a lot more complicated than that-"

"Mum had an affair, years ago. I was thirteen and I heard you arguing about it. I also heard you arguing about her second affair on Christmas Eve." Lunette's loose thoughts that had collected over the years, finally presented themselves with exactly what she wanted to say. "You have never got along with your in-laws. They used to send us angry letters, just filled with insults, so you burned them to protect me, but I saw them anyway. I know that you always work overtime when they come and visit so that you don't have to seem them, and then when you are home, you're too tired to talk so you go to bed early. I know that you and mum stopped celebrating your wedding anniversaries about ten years ago. What happened there? Did you decide that your marriage wasn't happy, over a decade ago? Did you fall out of love? Is it my fault you've been stuck with a woman you don't love?"

Rose shot a glance at Albus that asked 'Did you know about this?'. He understood his cousin and gave a small nod in reply.

Mr Tinker sighed and felt his daughter's pain. He closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head in dismay. "I didn't know that you picked up on so much."

"I may not be the smartest person, I may not get consistent high grades, I may look like a stereotypical dumb blonde, and barely anyone gets to know me beyond my looks, but I know the people I care about."

He looked up. "Would you hate me if I got a divorce?"

"Only if you didn't fight for me. I may almost be eighteen, but-"

"I didn't want to leave you, but you're right, you're not a child." He stood up straighter, a determined gleam in his eye. "I wanted you to want to stay with your old father." he choked down tears as he watched his daughter, her maturity sinking in for the first time. His baby girl had grown up. "It was time I let you decide for yourself. And maybe it's not fair to leave you to decide between two parents, but it doesn't mean that you would never see your mom again. But you might never see your grandparents again."

Lunette nodded and ran to hug him. Just then, they were interrupted by another hurried knock on the door. Rose opened it to see Scorpius. She glared at him but said nothing, she opened the door wider to let him in. He only nodded at her. He stopped himself from fully staring at Rose, pushed past Mr tinker as if he wasn't there, and spoke directly to Lunette.

"I found something, or at least my mum did. I have to say, this didn't take as long as I thought it would and it's opened my eyes to some stuff in my house that I've been trying to ignore." Scorpius took a deep breath before continuing. "We found a specific sketchy man, he dabbles in selling dark magic objects, he travels around Europe. Mostly France, England and Ireland. Now, while he can't be trusted, he does have a very nice elderly aunt who is a lovely woman, who lives near you. The man got himself a temporary job at the Daily Prophet owlery and found your father's name on the subscription list. He stayed at his aunt's house and-"

"Damn, the young man who came to our door two weeks ago!" Mr Tinker spoke up. "He came with Mrs Jingchu from up the road, to give us our copy of the Daily Prophet, which somehow they ended up with."

"But Mr Tinker, the owls used by the newpaper never go to the wrong house. Otherwise someone would have to pay for a newspaper they didn't want and a customer wouldn't get theirs." Scorpius explained.

"If the owls were wrong, who knows how many muggles would accidentally end up with our newspapers and letters. It would be a disaster, it would breach the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy." Rose joined in.

"The newspaper would have been shut down years ago." Scorpius finished and Rose nodded.

Rose smiled at Lunette and left out the back door into the garden, no one knew why but they just let her go.

"Thank you. It's Malfoy, isn't it?"

Scorpius shifted uncomfortably. "Scorpius, I'm Scorpius." He looked around them awkwardly for a moment, before giving Lunette a friendly squeeze on the shoulder. "I'll see you at school, unless there's anything else you want me to do, then don't hesitate to send an owl. I should get going."

Rose sighed and leant against the wall. Having Scorpius in her house was making her uncomfortable, and she wasn't sure if that was because she hated him, or because she didn't want to hate him anymore. She remembered the old days, when they were friends, and Rose would defend her friendship against her dad's remarks. But the days came where she found herself agreeing with him, but hating herself for it. 'Would it be easier on Lunette and Al if we were just friends again?' Rose thought to herself, but didn't answer. She knew the answer. She just didn't like it.

When Scorpius walked out the back door, a sudden sharp pain returned to his ankle, it had kept on coming back since his fight with Parkinson. Ignoring the pain and pushing through, refusing to limp, he was about to apparate, when he noticed Rose standing on her own. She looked as tired as Lunette did, at least he knew that Lunette was sleeping at night, it was just stress getting to her. But he could imagine Rose simply stayed up all night. He was right.

"Weasley," He called out to her.

She looked up in surprise to see Scorpius addressing her.

"Get some sleep," concern for her seeped through his voice and across his expression. "Please get some sleep." Scorpius could no longer deny to himself how much he cared for her. He apparated back home.

Rose was left, mouth gaping open slightly, staring at the spot where Scorpius had been. Her hands involuntarily twitched as thoughts of Scorpius being kind flooded her mind. It had happened too often for her to ignore. She tried to make herself think of Ben, but she didn't want to remember that she had a boyfriend. Her subconscious was trying to reach some untouched feelings for Scorpius, but Rose was stubborn. She could out-stubborn her own mind any day.

Luckily Rose was saved from her own thoughts as Mr Tinker left and Hugo called her inside for dinner. Albus was to go back home, so they would have to put the camp bed away, and he would visit the next day. Lunette was to stay until her father could find a place for them to live while he sorted out his marriage. And Rose told herself that sleep was absolutely a non negotiable thing for that night, despite part of her wanting to reject anything Scorpius said.

 **JANUARY**

School starting came too quickly for Lunette. Her parents had just began to negotiate a divorce, when it came time to pack her stuff for school. Since Boxing Day, Lunette had spent all her time at Rose's house with Albus visiting most days. When The day finally came for them all to all to get back on the Hogwarts express, Lunette was rather quiet but she felt lucky to be surrounded by Albus, Lily and Hugo.

Rose and Scorpius where working with some of the prefects to keep the corridors clear. Halfway through the journey, Ben Rome poked his head into the compartment that Albus and Lunette were in.

"Hey Lunette and um-" his voice trailed off, not remembering the names of Rose's cousins and brother. He felt bad, and made a metal note to get to know them better.

"Hi Rome." Albus answered, Lunette was staring out the window. "What can we do for you?"

"I was just wondering where Rose was, I haven't seen or spoken to her all holiday and I don't know if I'm annoyed or worried,"

Albus looked at Lunette and held her hand, "Rose has just been a bit busy with family matters. She should be walking around or in the prefect compartment, if you want to ask her yourself."

As soon as Ben left, Lunette suddenly stood in panic.

"What's the matter?" Lily asked.

"He's going to ask Rose why she didn't talk to him, it's all my fault and my stupid parents divorce. I don't want her to tell him." Lunette looked as anxious as she felt.

"I'm sure she won't. This is Rose we're talking about, she still won't tell me the secret a girl from our muggle primary school told her when we were ten." Albus scoffed. He watched Lunette leave, knowing that she would come to her senses in a minute and return to the compartment.

Lilly rolled her eyes. "You do realise that she's probably forgotten what the secret was by now."

"That doesn't matter, it's the principle. I was supposed to be her best friend and yet she didn't tell me." Albus tried to look put out but couldn't pull it off.

"You're such a child." Lilly mumbled.

"Says the fifteen year old who still gets in a huff everytime James gets a new girlfriend." Albus snapped back. He happened to notice Hugo grinning at both of them. "What makes you so happy?"

Hugo chuckled, "I'm glad me and Rose aren't the only ones who have petty arguments over nothing."

"Shut up Hugo, it's your turn." Lilly sighed as they went back to their game of exploding snap.

Rose was distracted, ticking the names of prefects off her list and crossing out those who were already at Hogwarts, when a voice popped up behind her and she spun around.

"Umm hi Rose."

"Ben!" she said cheerfully. But her mind was racing, 'why am I not genuinely happy to see him?'. Ignoring her feelings, or lack of, she put down her quill, balancing it on her clipboard, and kissed him quickly on the cheek. "How was your holiday break?"

"Oh, fine," Ben talked to the top of her head as Rose dropped her quill was searching for it on the floor. "But my girlfriend didn't speak to me, not even once. so that sucked." he muttered bitterly.

Rose snapped up suddenly, the quill grasped tightly in her hand, and a guilty look on her face. "I'm sorry, I meant- it's just-"

Ben rolled his eyes. "And here comes the excuse."

Rose grit her teeth and told herself not the retort viciously, though she would have if it were anybody else.

Ben shrugged "Did you forget you even had a boyfriend?"

Rose took a deep breath. "Ben, stop it. I know you're mad but this isn't you." she gave him a piercing warning look. "I was busy, and I think I started a letter or two but never finished or sent them. Something happened with-" she spotted Lunette out of the corner of her eye. "Someone in my family had an emergency, and when it comes to family, we all kind of drop everything to help them."

"Family emergency? Is that your way of telling me that I can't know the details."

"Ben," Rose's shoulder slumped and she sighed "what happened was very personal to the member of my family and if they want to tell people what happened, then that's up to them. But I'm not going to be the one who spreads it around school."

"Ok, fine. I can take that answer." he could tell her much she wanted him to believe her and drop the subject. He smiled at her "Just promise me you won't ditch and ignore me again."

Rose kissed him on the cheek again. "I promise." she looked over his shoulder again and noticed something "Umm,"

"What?" he asked flatly, knowing he was about to be disappointed by her again.

"Can I break that promise just for today? Or can we postpone it until we get to school?"

"Why?"

"Head girl duties call." She pointed her quill towards two prefects that were arguing in front of a very scared looking first year.

"Fine." He spotted Scorpius watching them, he scowled at him and then kissed Rose properly. "I'll see you later then."

With Scorpius unnoticed to her left, Lunette quietly standing to her right and the prefects arguing in front of her, Rose decided to deal with her head girl duties first. She knew that Lunette must have heard what was said and so wouldn't need to have a quiet word with her.

Scorpius nodded to Lunette and she stepped around Rose telling the students off to join him further up the corridor.

"Have you got head boy duties too?" Lunette asked.

Scorpius looked at Rose getting more and more irritated with the students and making notes one her parchment.

"Yeah," he grumbled, "I can't let her get all the credit." He smiled at Rose in a way that caught Lunette's attention.

"What was that smile?" she asked suspiciously

"What smile?" Scorpius schooled his expression quickly enough to pretend innocent.

Lunette was still suspicious and narrowed her brows. "I don't know, but this conversation isn't over."

Scorpius laughed and left her with a sarcastic tone before he went back to the prefect compartment. "Yes mum." The pain started in his ankle once again, seeing that Lunette was no longer in the corridor, Scorpius limped and it hurt a lot less.

What did didn't know was that Rose watched him struggle in pain. Deep concern began to settle in as she decided to keep a careful eye on him.

As soon as they reached the school, Scorpius disappeared up to his room, while Rose tried to make up for lost time with Ben in the Gryffindor common and Albus and Lunette visited Hugo and Lily there too.

By the time it was dinner, Scorpius was already sitting at the Slytherin table, waiting for Al to sit next to him in the space reserved. He was reading a book when Albus plonked beside him. After seven years being his friend and his whole life spent with Rose close to him, Albus was used to being partially ignored by a bookworm. He cleared his throat but Scorpius just handed him a peppermint sweet without lifting his eyes from the page. Curiosity got the best of him, and Albus bent his head down to read the title of the book.

He groaned in such an irritated way that it made Scorpius look up and put his book down.

Albus rolled his eyes and continued to moan. "What are you doing? Why are you reading a textbook? We're still technically in our holidays."

"We're not in our holidays, classes start again tomorrow. Besides, Weasley got a better mark than me in magical creatures essay, I've been a bit distracted ever since my fight with Parkinson, and now I want to catch up and beat her in something." Scorpius shrugged and neatly placed his textbook on his lap.

Albus laughed and rolled his eyes again. "You're such a nerd! Just my luck, I grew up with the ultimate bookworm, then we get to hogwarts and we meet her match."

Lunette waved to them, Albus waved back and she joined them quickly at the Slytherin table. Albus continued talking once she wedged herself between him and the third year beside him.

"Why do you two pretend to hate each other?" Albus asked Scorpius, while watching Rose trying to smile around Ben. But he knew his cousin's fake smiles, even the ones that convinced everyone else.

"We do hate each other." Scorpius said with another shrug.

Albus raised his hands in mock defense. "Fine, if you want to live in denial-"

Lunette knew exactly who they were talking about and jumped right into the conversation. "No, they have to accept it sooner or later. Scorpius, there is no way you hate Rose Granger Weasley, in fact, I think it's the exact opposite!" She kept her voice down so that the noisy students around them didn't hear, luckily they were sitting at the end so not too many were around to eavesdrop.

"Think what you like, I know she hates me just as much as I hate her-"

"So not at all." Lunette interrupted.

Scorpius couldn't help but let the tiny delight reach his eyes when Lunette said this, but he hid it quickly enough. He knew that she couldn't be correct. "You know what, it's you two that are delusional. I'm going to bed."

Lunette smirked. "To be near Rose?" She had seen her friend leave just moments before Scorpius had decided to leave, but neither he nor Albus had seen her.

Albus shuffled uncomfortably. "Lunette, that's my cousin. Can you not-"

"Oh grow up." She lightly hit his arm. "What do you think they get up to, all alone, somewhere that nobody else goes-"

"Lunette! Stop it."

Lunette rolled her eyes then turned to Scorpius, who was now standing, his book under one arm. "Fine, you're lucky Albus was here. Otherwise…"

"Thanks Al." he nodded.

"Whatever." Albus mumbled, crossing his arms. "But do you really hate her? I don't think you do. I mean, I know that you're both stubborn, but I never believed you could be so stubborn as to disrupt your friendship for about four years. That's got to be some sort of world record right?"

"It's all just smoke and mirrors." Lunette smiled smugly, "Look at you Scorp, you're getting anxious just talking about not hating her and-"

"Fine then!" Scorpius slammed his book on the table and sat opposite them again in a huff, he leaned in closely so no one else could hear. "You want to know the truth? I think you're right! and there's nothing I can do about it. I don't hate her, I really don't. I don't think I ever hated her and I don't think I ever will. And you can stopping grinning like idiots, I don't think my feelings go past wanting be her friend again, but- ok I miss her alright, we were all good friends until fourth year and I miss that. She's a good person, smart, funny, feisty and I wish I hadn't thrown it all away just because I overreacted out of jealousy. But there's nothing I can do, she's got Ben. You said it yourself Lunette, he's a good guy for her, they match." Scorpius then walked away, sharply and quickly, the usual instant regret washing over him as soon as someone is open to another person.

Scorpius's torment was obvious, so Albus and Lunette let him go without another word.

"Herr, wirf Hirn vom Himmel! oder Steine, Hauptsache er trifft." Lunette grumbled.

"Wait, that wasn't French. Do you speak German as well?" Albus looked at her in amazement.

"Only a few words. I knew someone who went to Durmstrang and he picked up some German there and taught me some."

Albus grinned and wrapped an arm around her, "You're amazing."

Albus and Lunette shared a soft kiss, just as someone, whom they tried to ignore, commented loudly.

"Ugh, she could do so much better than him. She's hot and he's just riding the coattails of his famous father."

As the couple walked to the Hufflepuff common room, hand in hand, in comfortable silence, Lunette suddenly stopped and pulled him aside.

She kept hold of his hands and kissed him quickly on the cheek. "You know that you're so much more than that." she spoke with concern.

"More than what?" Albus was confused.

"You're more than just the son of the famous Harry Potter. And you're not 'riding on his coattails' or whatever that person said. You're wonderful and kind and sweet, in your own awkward way. And that's what I lo- I really like about you. You're not trying to be like your dad, you're just being yourself. You never asked for the attention your family attracts, I know your dad never wanted that either."

Albus smiled at her, his heart filled with everlasting emotions yet he was so young. "And you're more than hot. You don't deserve to be boiled down to one word describing only your appearance."

Lunette smiled shyly. "Oh yeah, what am I then?" She knew she was beautiful, she had always been told so, she had the confidence to love her body as many people do not, and beauty was in her genes as part Veela. But what she loved about Albus was that he was one of the few that saw her for much more than that.

"Well you're a brilliant friend, you're the fiercely loyal that you often see in Hufflepuffs. I'm serious about the fierce bit, I don't think anyone would survive if they crossed one of your friends. I feel sorry for the poor sod who would dare to come between you and Rose, between her hexes, your feisty bravery and Scorp's uncontrollable protectiveness of Rose, they wouldn't survive a second." Albus sighed. "You're intelligent, so intelligent. You're uncommonly kind. And you're stronger than you realise."

In the head common room, Rose lunged herself onto a sofa and sighed before opening her book, _The Westing Game_ by Ellen Raskin. Scorpius had finished improving his notes on Romanian Longhorn dragons, a magical creature that Rose was an almost expert on, and then went down the winding steps to the common room. He saw Rose looking quite relaxed and he smiled, not hating her was one of the nicest things he had ever done to his heart and his head. Deciding that any conversation he tried to have would only result in argument, Scorpius went to his room to fetch a book and quietly sat opposite her.

Three hours of perfect silence, except for the rustle of pages being turned. Outside was pitch black. Rose yawned and stretched, she put her book down and then jumped at the sight of Scorpius. She had been so engrossed that she hadn't realised he was there.

"Shit! Malfoy! How long have you been down here?" Rose tripped over the low table while not paying attention but quickly got herself off of the floor to send him an unamused look.

Scorpius shrugged and slowly closed his book. "What's wrong? We were both being quiet, it was actually nice to come down here and having a few hours of not arguing."

Rose rolled her eyes. "I'm going to bed." She grumbled and began to trudge off.

"Wait, you forgot your book." Scorpius got up and passed it to her, but not without looking at the title. " _The Westing Game_ is it any good? I think I've heard of it."

"I've only just started it, but yes it's good." Rose spoke slowly in her suspicion of the normal conversation.

"I'm reading _East_ by Edith Pattou, this is my third time reading it I love it so much. Kind of a remake of the old Beauty and the Beast Fairytale, with Norwegian myths thrown in there." Scorpius mentally kicked himself, he was trying to have a normal conversation but it wasn't working out well, it felt forced and awkward.

"Umm, right." Rose took her book and turned again to leave.

"Oh, Weasley," Scorpius stopped her again and Rose very slowly turned around. He took at step forward and spoke in an almost whisper. "You've got an eyelash on your cheek."

Rose took a step back apprehensively.

Scorpius laughed. "I'm not going to hurt you, I was just going to get the eyelash off." Rose glared at him so he didn't move, once she had relaxed, Scorpius leaned forward again. "Here, let me," he picked it up very gently and held it up for her to see. "Make a wish."

"What?" Rose croaked, her ears had turned red, she hadn't been so close to Scorpius in a while, their arms almost touching. She found herself trying to avoid his greyish-blue eyes that she didn't want to notice how they made her feel warm whenever they glanced her way.

"It's a muggle thing, I think it's some sort of saying or folklore thing."

"I know, I do have muggle grandparents." Rose groaned.

Scorpius raised his eyebrows expectantly, it became apparent that he wasn't going to let Rose leave without making a wish.

Rose grit her teeth, "Fine, but this is stupid." She closed her eyes and blowed gently and the eyelash fell on the floor.

Scorpius watched her face, he saw her expression relax. He couldn't stop himself moving closer to her, he felt himself drawn to her, his mind racing with excuses to keep her near him. Once Rose opened her eyes, she looked up at him, she had noticed him staring. Scorpius flinched, he was expecting her to say something like 'wish didn't work, you're still here.' Rose would have been lying to herself if she didn't admit that the quick witted, but predictable, reply was the first thing that she was going to say. But something in the way Scorpius stared at her, stopped the words forming. She stared back for a moment, but her ears were burning and she knew that she had to get away before she did something spontaneous to surprise them both.

"What was your wish?" Scorpius asked.

Rose couldn't help but grin slyly. "I can't tell you , otherwise it wouldn't come true."

"I thought you said it was stupid." Scorpius smirked back.

"It is, but-" she began to answer, but couldn't think how to finish. Instead she burst out laughing, he was still so close to her.

"Something funny?" Scorpius frowned with a faint hint of a smile.

Rose managed to quiet herself enough to speak. "It's just, the quiet and reserved Scorpius Malfoy just became very serious with an eyelash wish." She started laughing again. "Does that not seem funny to you? And somehow ironic?"

Scorpius found himself smiling, even though he wasn't sure if he was being made fun of or not, it was just nice to have Rose laughing around him again.

Once she had finished her laugh, that was partly due to the awkwardness, Rose seemed to suddenly realise once again how close they were. She could see the small flecks of green in his eyes.

"Umm, I have to go." Rose felt flustered, though she did not know why. She started up the stairs but gave up after tripping, turned around quickly and exited the common room.

Scorpius found himself yet again watching Rose leave without a single word to stop her.

Rose found her legs taking her to the Gryffindor common room, she wondered if anyone would still be up. Though Ben was often awake planning the next quidditch tactics. She was right, after clambering through the fat lady portal, being extra careful not to trip, Ben looked up from his spot by the window.

"Rose! Hi, this is a nice surprise." Ben grinned and went to her. "Are you alright, you look a bit, I don't know, all over the place."

Rose forced a smile, "Yeah, sorry, my mind is- yeah." She sat down on the nearest sofa and he joined her. "I was going to see you earlier but I got carried away reading a book." She lied to make him feel as though she actually had meant to see him. "So what's the plan for the match against Ravenclaw in two weeks?" She asked, trying to make conversation.

"We don't have to talk about quidditch if you don't want to." Ben smiled and held her hand.

Rose was faced away from him for a moment and frowned. She was confused and irritated by herself. While Scorpius had made her heart race just being being in close proximity, Ben holding her hand did not have the same effect. It wasn't that she was comfortable with Ben and uncomfortable with Scorpius, it was more like she felt obliged and out of place when being so close with Ben.

"My mind seems to be all over the place more often these days. More often than I'd like to admit to myself." Rose mumbled. She looked up at him then leant her head on the back of the sofa "Why do you like me? I'm a bit of a mess."

"You're not that much of a mess, and I'd like to think that as our relationship develops, you'll get used to someone liking you. Once you get used to it, maybe you won't feel like a mess." Ben lifted her head and kissed her. "And to answer your question, I like you because you're you. You feel what you feel, you do what you do and you don't have to fake anything. You get those people who pretend to be someone they're not just to impress everyone, you're nothing like that."

Rose shifted uncomfortably, he had no idea of the amount of fake smiles she had to force, "You're being romantic and mushy." she spotted his disappointed expression and added, "But kind of sweet at the same time, I guess."

"Yeah, well, I'll try so stop being a romantic boyfriend." Ben replied sarcastically. "I realised on the train today, that I don't really know your family very well. You and your cousin Albus are pretty close right?"

"Yep, we've been best friends since forever. And his girlfriend Lunette has become a best friend of mine."

"They're best friends with Malfoy as well though. That's gotta be tough."

"Yep." she nodded, 'tougher than anyone in this school could ever imagine' she thought but Rose kept her answer short, she didn't want to talk about Scorpius with her boyfriend, and she wasn't ready to open up to him, or anyone, about her feelings and her head not always agreeing on what Scorpius was to her. She decided to change the topic. "So how are things with McLaggen and his little group."

"Yeah they got bored of me pretty quickly. I'm actually getting along better with a group of sixth years."

"You'll have to introduce me to them some time."

"Yeah, when you have a spare moment." Ben moaned, they hadn't spent much time together in a long time. "You should meet my little brother as well."

"And you'll have to meet mine." Rose refused to feel guilty about not knowing about his brother, Ben didn't know her family either, only by reputation. And as the descendants of Weasleys and Potters, it was hard to avoid reputations. "What's his name?"

"Calvin, Calvin Rome. He's a third year and he's a twat"

"Oh Lysander is a third year. Lysander Scamander, his mum isn't related but she might as well be. Same goes for Professor Longbottom."

Ben scoffed and laughed, "What, do you call him uncle or something?"

Rose didn't like his mocking tone, she sat up and stared coldly at him. "Yes we do actually. Uncle Neville. My brother, Albus and his siblings, and I, have called him that since we could talk. Same goes for our Aunty Luna. Look, family means a lot to me, a lot. Just because someone isn't related by blood, it doesn't make them any less important to me than my brother or my cousins. I need you to respect that."

Ben raised his hands in mock defense, "Alright, alright, you don't need to go all scary Rose on me. I get it, professor Longbottom is part of your family. Rose, I'm your boyfriend, I care about you and I didn't mean to make fun."

"I know that."

"Well then can you please relax your hands, your fists are so tight that your knuckles are going white." Ben warily watched her hands.

Rose hadn't realised she had made fists and instantly relaxed them. "It's been a long day, I'm going to bed. I'll see you tomorrow." Rose stood.

Ben quickly caught her hand before she left. "Don't leave angry at me. I'm sorry."

Rose sighed, "I'm not angry, it's ok, we're ok." She took one step back towards the sofa, leant down to kiss him quickly and then left the common room, bewildered as to why kissing him felt out of place.

Ben ran out of the common room, just after she left a shouted to her. "Rose, how about a date tomorrow? At dinner we can meet up on the fourth floor, sit in an empty classroom room. I'll sneak some food from the kitchens. Come on, it'll be exactly three months since we started dating."

Rose smiled, then made her way back to her room.

The next day, at dinner time, Scorpius had just left his care of magical creatures class to sit beside Albus at the Slytherin table. They grabbed a few sandwiches and sausage rolls, then, with Lunette soon joining them, they went up to the head common room. Lunette and Albus had decided to keep a close eye on Scorpius ever since his fight with Lloyd Parkinson. And Lunette felt that she needed her friends even more now that her mother had decided to move back to France, making the divorce process more drawn out as documents had to be posted back and forth overseas by owl.

"You alright Scorp?" Albus asked. "You've kind of been quiet since your class."

"She got almost fifty points for Gryffindor! Fifty! In one lesson!" Scorpius let out his amazement. "She was answering all the questions and I was so distracted, I didn't even open my mouth once!"

"I'm assume we're talking about Rose here." Lunette muttered.

"Yeah and I bet she was the very thing that distracted him too." Albus commented and the couple sniggered.

"Yeah, yeah, alright, calm down." Scorpius rolled his eyes. "You guys won't believe me when I complain about her now, will you?"

"Nope." Albus grinned. He was loving Scorpius's new realisation. He had always missed the days when he, Scorpius and Rose would get along, but hadn't realised how much he ached for it, until Scorpius stopped bad mouthing Rose.

The time reached 7 o'clock exactly and Rose tumbled down the stairs. Albus and Lunette were hanging out in the common room. Scorpius grit his teeth, they all knew that Rose had an important date with Ben. The scent of her perfume drifted past them as she smiled at Albus and Lunette and made her way to the door, without taking a second glance at Scorpius. But his voice caught her as she opened the door.

"Are you wearing makeup?" He called out, instantly regretting the mocking tone that accidentally made its way through. Scorpius didn't mean to seem like he was degrading her efforts, but after years of conflict it just came out that way.

To their surprise, Rose didn't get angry. Her ears turned red, which was obviously seen as her hair was plaited neatly, and she suddenly felt flustered. Shifting uncomfortably, Rose slowly opened the door and replied. "You're supposed to pretend not to notice." She quickly made her escape and left the three of them bewildered and amused.

"Well she seems more flustered around you than ever before." Albus sighed, "But was it me or is she more comfortable with you too?"

Scorpius's composed face cracked into a cheeky grin. "I know, it's great."

Lunette folded her arms and sent stern eye to him. "Look, I know you've suddenly realised that you don't hate her, but Rose is dating Ben now. You can't keep trying to confuse her by acting differently. By all means, keep being nice to her, but no more 'accidental' close moments that make her blush! I can see when she's with Ben, she actually like him which is rare and now she's not sure. He's noticed it too. And I think it's your fault."

Scorpius couldn't shake his smile. "So, you think I'm confusing how she feels..." he sounded hopeful.

"Don't be happy about it!" Lunette punched him in the arm while Albus stifled a laugh.

"In all seriousness, please don't purposely play with my cousins feelings." Albus spoke up on the subject.

"So what am I meant to do?" Scorpius groaned and rolled his eyes. "Pretend to still hate her? Argue with her, hex her, be a git all the time even though I don't want to. Isn't keeping up this act of hating her, playing her feelings as well?"

"How about we focus on a main goal for you, one that I think is manageable, but bearing in mind you do it all the time-" she sighed, "anyway. Just _try_ not to criticise Ben, or any future boyfriends of Rose's. She hates it when you do that." Lunette suggested

Albus frowned and turned to her. "Why?"

"Because his opinion is important to her, and she doesn't want to admit that." Lunette answered.

Albus nodded, understanding and he turned back to Scorpius. "It's your jealousy that stopped you from being friends in the first place. All you do is repeat what Rose is already thinking and then she hates you for speaking out loud what she was trying to ignore."

"She should really stop doing that." Lunette mumbled.

Albus shrugged "Yeah, but what can anyone do about it?"

Meanwhile, Rose pushed open the door to an empty classroom to see Ben setting a desk and two chairs.

"Hey, you're late." Ben said with a fake smile.

"Oh, sorry, it's only a few minutes-" Rose began absently.

"Yeah, no, it's fine. I was just waiting here on my own for five minutes, wondering if my girlfriend would ditch me again." He said with aggressive sarcasm.

Rose frowned. "I got held up for a few minutes, I hardly think it's worth getting angry about."

Ben paused before he said. "Fine, you probably just held up by Malfoy."

Rose thought back to the way Scorpius had looked at her when she had left her room, as if she was the only person that mattered. "Sure." she muttered, but it was loud enough for Ben to hear.

"Was he being a twat?" he jumped to conclusions.

Rose flinched, she didn't mind herself insulting him but when someone else did it, it seem malicious.

"No, I genuinely think he was trying to be nice or was going to be nice. Which is weird and I think it took me by surprise that he even noticed me as I walked out the door. We've taken to ignoring each other on a day to day basis, I guess on the way over here my mind has been remembering when he and I used to be friends."

"Well you can't be friends."

Rose flinched again, she didn't like being told what she couldn't do. "I don't know, maybe we could. She said in defiance. "We could try, I mean we did it before and we're pretty close at some points." She willed herself not to start thinking of all the times she had kissed Scorpius.

Ben just laughed. "No, you really couldn't. Anyway, how about we sit down a change the subject." Ben tried to stay upbeat even though his mood had been slightly dampened. "You're starting to talk about Malfoy in a way that could get a boyfriend jealous."

Rose tried to smile, "You have nothing to worry about there, believe me." the smile dropped, she wasn't sure she believed those words, but she wasn't sure why.

"Ok! So let the anniversary dinner begin."

"It's not an anniversary though, is it." Rose instantly regretted her words.

"Yes it is." Ben's smile and happy mood had completely dropped.

"Well, no, it's only been a few months. Saying it's an anniversary would be anual, a year at least." Rose wished she could remove her tongue, she just couldn't stop the words flowing out of her mouth.

Ben packed away the plates and cups with one swish of his wand. "You know what Rose, if you didn't want to do this, you could've just said." He sighed.

"No, sorry. I didn't mean to say anything." Rose felt guilt trickle into her mind.

"Rose, let's not argue." he said decidedly and started to pack everything up.

"Um, Ben?" Rose spoke uncertainty. She had only just arrived and he was about to leave.

"We'll just stop here and start again later." He squeezed her hand gently and kissed her on the cheek. "We'll go down to Hogsmeade another weekend and do our date then. I'll see you tomorrow, if you're not late again." And he left without another glance at her. Ben was honest to himself, he wasn't angry at Rose at all. He just felt that he was more in the relationship than she was, which frustrated him.

Rose stared at the empty classroom. Annoyed with herself. She took a tissue out of her pocket and quickly wetted it with a stream of water from her wand. Rose slumped into a chair and rubbed the makeup off of her face. She felt silly and uncomfortable with it on anyway. She didn't understand how her cousins and Lunette could put makeup on everyday and actually enjoy doing it. Rose felt like a fraud whenever she even tried, and was too embarrassed to ask anyone for help.

She grit her teeth and started talking to herself in a stern tone. "Rose Minerva Granger-Weasley, don't you _dare_ start crying over nothing." But the deflated feeling and the threat of small tears wouldn't go away so easily. More annoyed with herself, Rose barged her way out of the class room and marched out the castle. Only the few prefects patrolling saw her leave, and they all knew that questioning what was going on in the head girl's head was pointless. They didn't know that it was because she didn't understand herself any more than they did.

Albus and Lunette soon left the head common room and Scorpius found himself staring out the window, all alone in the common room. He looked up at the stars and thought of how much Rose liked to stare at them. That's when he spotted her, Rose had retrieved an old broom from the school supplies and was hovering around in circles on the quidditch pitch.

Scorpius frowned and mumbled to himself, "What in Merlin's name is she doing?". He waited a few moments, he expected to see Ben follow her to the pitch, Scorpius thought that perhaps it was part of their date. But no one else was there but Rose.

He grabbed his own boom and ran down to the front doors as quickly as he could. Again being spotted by prefects, who, by that point, had no idea what was going on between the head boy and girl who supposedly hated each other.

One Ravenclaw prefect elbowed another and muttered. "Head boy has gone out now."

"Crap, both of them are out there?"

"Yep, I sense an argument or a hexing battle coming on."

"Come on, if anything happens we'll hear about it tomorrow. I think I heard someone make a noise upstairs, and I'll bet you two chocolate frogs it was a first year."

"Alright, you're on. I think it's just Peeves and we'll get caught up in it somehow."

Scorpius zoomed to the quidditch pitch and landed as soon as he hit the neatly trimmed grass. He looked up, Rose seemed relaxed.

Scorpius hopped back on his broom and hovered alongside her and spoke loudly so that she would notice. "You know, you really shouldn't be flying around unless you're practicing with your team."

Rose was startled out of her drifting thoughts and came to a sudden halt mid air. She watched him suspiciously for a moment, and had to admit to herself that she had expected Ben to be the one to interrupt her thoughts. After such their date had gone so poorly, she had hoped that he would come and find her so that they could talk it over properly. She knew that was unfair to expect him to follow her out there, but that one small part of her and wished for it so dearly. That's why she went outside despite the nippy late January cold. She knew that Ben often sat in the quidditch pitch stands just to think things through.

"You know what? I couldn't care less right now." She finally answered.

"Why doesn't that surprise me? Why are you out here anyway?"

Rose sighed. "Not that it's any of your business, but I need space to think. Somewhere that isn't crowded with cousins or some Malfoy twat."

"Mind if I join you?" Scorpius leant forward and circled her slowly.

"Yes, I do mind. The whole point of this was to be alone." Rose dipped down slightly to get out of his circle, and halted again, further away.

"Well, too bad." Scorpius shrugged and pulled up beside her.

In silence, Rose gathered enough space from him by looping the entire pitch, even though the school broom was a lot slower than Scorpius's own, Rose kept him off her tail by throwing in the random dip or dive, twist and turn. She even changed directions a few times. But he always caught up too quickly. Eventually Rose had had enough. She stopped directly in front of him and hit him with a glare.

"I'm guessing that not everything is ok, and if you want, I can listen. I know we're not friends anymore but-" Scorpius began, trying to sound as sincere as he felt.

"Why do you do this?" Rose interrupted.

"Do what?"

"Randomly be nice to someone you hate?"

"I'm not saying anything, we haven't spoken for the last ten minutes. Anyway I thought I was being annoying, you wanted to be alone."

"I'm serious, why are you here?" Rose began descending until she was hovering only four feet above the ground.

"I don't know," Scorpius dipped down to her level. "I saw you from the window and thought, why isn't your boyfriend out here with you?"

Rose flinched, Scorpius had hit the nail on the head. "He isn't here because I didn't ask him to come."

"But if he really liked you, wouldn't you want him to come anyway?"

"Stop it, stop criticising him!" Rose jumped off her broom, with her feet solidly on the ground she couldn't help but shout. "What is wrong with you? Why do you have to criticise every relationship I have!" She stormed off towards the broom shed.

"I'm not criticising him!" Scorpius called after her, only catching up to her fast pace once she reached the shed. "But obviously I've touched a nerve or a very fragile part of your relationship with him."

"Ben is a nice guy!"

"Is he though?"

Rose slammed the shed door and took a deep breath. "Look Malfoy, me and Ben are fine. We click, we're good together, he likes me a lot and I-" Rose paused for a moment, but decided to push through, "I like him. Just stay out of this one."

"Then why am I out here with you and he's not?"

She paused again, a fresh wave of disappointment washing over her. But not because Ben wasn't there, it was because she couldn't say what was on her mind, what was hidden even from herself. She stuttered and shouted

"Because you were creepy enough to stare at me out a window!" She quickly marched to the front doors of the castle.

Scorpius was still shouting, only a few paces behind. "It is not creepy to look out a window and just happen to notice you alone!"

"Well you didn't have to join me."

"Well what if Ben looked out the window too but was too busy to come, or didn't want to come. At least I came outside anyway, even though I knew that you would shout at me."

Rose stopped and turned to him. "What are you trying to say? That Ben isn't good enough? That you're better than him? Why would I care, I'm dating Ben, not you. I hate you!"

"I know that!" Scorpius shouted, the words seemed to have a sobering affect and he calmed down. "I know that I'm not your boyfriend."

Rose studied his expression, but she couldn't understand him. He seemed neither happy nor angry at the fact they weren't together. As usual, Rose had no idea what was going on in Scopius's head. "Ugh! I don't understand you! You're a bloody closed book as always!"

"Well that's fine, isn't it? We're not friends so you don't have to understand. Besides, I know you hate me."

"Exactly, and you hate me too."

Scorpius looked at her, desperate to keep the pain off his face. "Right, of course." he stopped and waited until she was out of earshot, then mumbled bitterly to himself, "And what a disappointment to the Malfoy family I would be, if I didn't hate you Weasley." He sighed and slowly trudged back to his room. He remembered all those times, back when he was friends with Rose, that they had both said how their last names and family reputations didn't matter.

"I wished that my date would go ok." Rose whispered, not expecting Scorpius to hear it, but he did. "I wished that this date would set me and Ben back on track, I guess that's not going to happen." she picked up the pace and Scorpius let her go.

By the time her reached the common room, Rose had already gone to bed and so that was what Scorpius tried to do as well. He climbed into bed but his head wouldn't stop thinking. He couldn't remember if he had ever said it out loud, but in his mind Scorpius had promised countless times that he would never let go of his friendship with Rose. 'But what does that matter now?' Scorpius thought to himself. 'I wish I could go back in time, go back to fourth year and slap some sense into that idiotic and jealous kid.'

 **FEBRUARY**

It was Saturday morning, and Rose and Ben finally had a chance to catch up at the Gryffindor table over breakfast.

"Morning, look who isn't too late today." Ben cheerfully greeted when Rose sat down beside him.

"Ben, about yesterday, I'm sorry I don't know why I-"

"No no no, we're not talking about yesterday. I don't think either of us were in a good mood and we both left feeling worse than when we arrived. Which was not the point of the date and not what this relationship should be like." Ben squeezed her hand gently before sliding over a mug of tea. "I saw you walking to the quidditch pitch last night. That's how I know you weren't in a good mood, I decided to give you space and not catch up to you, also I needed to sleep on yesterday."

Rose smiled, quite convincingly in her opinion as Ben went back to eating his toast. But inside she was disappointed, Scorpius had been right when he suggested that Ben had seen her but not bothered to come out. Her eyes drifted to the Slytherin table, where Albus had not turned up yet but Scorpius watched her fake smile. Their eyes met, he could see straight through her fake smile. She quickly looked down and away from his blueish-grey eyes that knew her so well.

"Tell you what," Ben interrupted Rose's thoughts, "some other team has booked the pitch for today. Why don't you come with me to the library. I'm sure you have some essay to do and I need to look over the strategies I'm sharing with the team tomorrow practise." He looked over to the Slytherin table, he knew instantly who she had been distracted by.

Rose grinned at Ben, "Sounds good to me."

In the library, huddled in one corner, Rose watched Ben yawn as he drew another quidditch tactic on the parchment. She realised something, she didn't have any feelings for him other than friendship. Scorpius walked in, Rose shifted her eyes to watch him sit on his own and open a book.

"Oh, would you look at that, Rose is staring at Malfoy, what a shock." Ben mumbled. "Well, it might be a shock to everyone else but I can't help but notice constantly."

"Want to run that past me again?" Rose growled.

Ben huffed and put down his quill. He looked her dead in the eyes as he spoke. "Rose I asked you out because I liked you, and when you said yes, I thought it was because you liked me too."

"I do like you."

"But not in the way that you- look Rose, if I said, we can go back to being friends and pretend like we never dated, would you take it?"

Rose didn't answer, she let out a little squeak in her surprise, but her voice had failed her.

Ben looked around and saw Scorpius, then turned back to Rose. "You clearly have some confusing feelings for someone else, whether you or they are aware of them, I don't know. But I don't want to be caught up in the middle of it. And I don't want to be in a one-sided relationship."

"I don't have feelings for someone else." Rose protested.

"Ok, but you don't have feelings for me."

Rose sighed, he was right there. But she had no reply for him.

"I believe that you think that you don't have feelings for anyone else, otherwise I don't think you would have gone out with me." Ben continued " I also believe that you are mistaken. I'm serious Rose, if I said that we break up now, a civil and mutual agreement to just be friends, would you take it?"

Rose saw Scorpius leave out of the corner of her eye , he seemed to be limping again. She was annoyed at herself for not realising before.

"Umm, Ben, can I get back to you on one that. I've got to- yeah." She dashed off behind Scorpius.

Ben sighed, he think he already knew the answer to his question.

Rose shouted out for Scorpius in the hallway. He stopped and waited for her to catch up.

"You're limping again."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are, I saw it! Is it from before Christmas? Or has something happened again?"

Scorpius was about to deny it, but he knew that Rose had already figured him out. "Alright, fine, every now and then my ankle starts to hurt again. But it's not a big deal."

"Yes it is, you're doing too much. You should go to the hospital wing."

"And say what? The head boy got in a fight before Christmas and never told anyone? I might get the privilege of living so close to you removed." He said it in such a sarcastic manner that Rose never thought that he wasn't joking.

"Just tell them that you fell over." She shrugged.

"That might work for you, but no one else falls over as much as you do and they might not believe me."

"Ooh a clumsy joke, very clever." she mocked him, but she wasn't done being serious "Fine, don't go and get help." She crossed her arms. "But there is no way you can go to quidditch practise."

Scorpius hide a smile, she knew his schedule. "Look, I'm going to go and you can't stop me. Otherwise, I don't know, I guess you have strong feelings for me Weasley."

"Strong feelings? For you? Are you kidding? I guess your brain is still damaged." she mumbled.

"Your concern for me is gratefully received." Scorpius spoke in a sarcastically wistful tone.

Rose forced a very obvious fake smile. "Go rot in hell." She marched back to Ben and sat down beside him in a huff.

"What's wrong now?"

"Malfoy just-" Rose's fists were clenched for a moment before she shook the tension off. "He really gets on my nerves-"

"Look at you, you have strong feelings for him." Ben said, knowing he would have laughed if he weren't losing Rose, his first girlfriend.

Rose felt a pin prick of irritation sure through her body. "Don't say that!" her nostrils flared. "Strong feelings of hatred-"

"If you say so. But strong feelings all the same. And what do you feel for me?"

"Ben, I'm not comparing you to that Malfoy gargoyle-"

"Rose, I think we thought that we liked each other more than we actually did. Just answer me, if we walk away as friends now, as if this relationship never happened, would you do it?" He repeated and Rose finally listened.

Rose looked into his eyes she held his hands in her own and she felt nothing. Her mind absently remembered accidentally touching Scorpius hand in their first year, and the butterflies in her stomach that she had felt then. She felt nothing when it came to Ben, other than they just didn't fit as anything more than friends.

"I should get all blame, why are you trying to save me from it?" Rose muttered, she saw that Ben was about to answer, most likely to reassure her, but she stopped him. "I'm sorry. You really are a great guy, we just don't fit."

"So, I'll see you for quidditch practise tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow." Rose squeezed his hands gently then let them go. "I'm sorry."

"Me too, but we don't choose who we do and don't have feelings for."

"I just wish-"

"I know, I wish you had feelings for me too." Ben stood and packed his bag. "We're not going to make this awkward, I like being your friend and your quidditch captain." He stuck out his hand for a firm handshake which she eagerly complied. "Let's not spread it around, because people will talk and I don't want people to talk."

Rose smiled gratefully. "Sure, but this is Hogwarts, not much stays quiet for very long." She peered over Ben's shoulder and saw the librarian glaring at them, Ben glanced at her too and turned to go, but Rose called him back. Her suspicions and anxieties creeping into her mind almost immediately. "Wait. This isn't out of the blue, how long have you been thinking about breaking up?"

Ben sighed. "Since Christmas, you didn't contact me once but I found out that you saw Malfoy. If you hate him as much as you claim-" he stopped himself.

"How did you- oh nevermind." News travelled fast around Hogwarts, nearly everyone who cared about gossip knew about Lunette's parents. "He was there for Lunette, not for me."

"Yeah, sure." he mumbled. "You're quite a close knit group aren't you?"

"Not really."

"Well you would be, everyone can see that, if it weren't for your boyfriends." Ben watched her eyebrow lift and he quickly explained himself. "Anyone who has paid any attention to you would easily know that Malfoy didn't like your boyfriend and then you stopped being friends. And when you're in a relationship, he gets more defensive and argumentative. And when Malfoy is in a relationship, he ignores you. If that doesn't say you have feelings for one another then I don't know what would-"

"Ben just go." Rose said shortly. "I'll see you at quidditch practise next week."

As soon as Ben left, she opened her textbook to a random page, but she couldn't concentrate. The words all jumbled up inside her head and she couldn't care less which potion saved Sir Memfry in 1183, or 1318, or 1813, the numbers were all muddled when she tried to concentrate. Slamming the book shut and not caring about the scowl she received from the librarian or the confused looks from students around her, Rose left and made her way back to the head common room.

The first thing she saw as she entered the common room, was Scorpius huddled over his desk writing an essay. He looked up at her, instantly recognising something was wrong. Rose took one sharp glance at him before charging into her room. The slam of her bedroom door was all that Scorpius needed to hear before he went to the Slytherin common room to find Albus, and together they found Lunette and sat down on a bench in the fifth floor hallway.

"What's happened?" Scorpius asked Lunette, expecting her to know.

"What's happened with what?" She was bewildered.

"I don't know! Weasley just walked into the common room with a weird look on her face and then ran to her room without saying anything."

"So? Maybe she just didn't want to see or talk to you, that wouldn't be unusual." Albus said with a shrug.

Scorpius looked at his watch and sighed. "Look, I've got to go, can you two please find out what's happened? Something is definitely up." Scorpius tried to jog away from them but his ankle was acting up again.

Albus turned to Lunette and smiled. "He knows that we can't get into the head common room without him, right?"

Lunette laughed. "He might have forgotten that small detail. I guess we'll have to find out tomorrow. This is Rose we're talking about, if anything _has_ happened, she can deal with it."

"Yeah, he probably just made some remark about quidditch and now she's mad at him for nothing." The couple walked hand in hand away.

In her room, Rose sat in an armchair by the window, flicking through yet another textbook. Not wanting to think about Ben, she studied the words carefully. Of course she couldn't concentrate so she found herself reading the same paragraph multiple times. Her eyes were strained. Rose stood up, stretched, and sighed. The sun was going to set in just a few hours, she made a mental note to get into her pajamas, get ready for bed, and then sit by the window and revise her Herbology notes. As Rose went to get dressed, she stubbed her toe on the armchair and cursed loudly. As she bent down to inspect the damage, her eyes caught something outside.

It was Scorpius in his quidditch robes, limping on his way to practise. Rose rolled her eyes.

'He really doesn't listen to me at all.' she thought.

Rose conjured her fox patronus, it cheered her up immensely, she spoke to it directly and sent it out the window towards the limping head boy. Her grandparents, former member of the Order of the Phoenix, taught her how she could use her patronus to communicate.

Scorpius flinched once again, his shin pads were digging into his ankle. Swearing under his breath with every step, he didn't even notice the wispy silver animal charging towards him in a playful manner until he almost walked through it.

"What, in Merlin's name, are you?" he muttered to it.

Rose watched as her patronus bounced around Scorpius before it delivered her message. She laughed at his confusion.

Scorpius starred as the patronus curled into a ball until it lost any shape of the fox and just became a circle. Then it spoke it Rose's light tone.

"You can't go to practise with an injured ankle."

Scorpius new immediately what it was, he had read something about a patronus being used to communicate, but he had never seen it before. He looked up in the direction of the head boy and girl tower, but couldn't really tell which one was which. Rose could see him looking up and spoke into her wand once again.

"Seriously, you can't go." the ball spoke again.

Scorpius shouted upwards and in the general direction of the tower. "I'm not listening to some patronus, but it's nice that you care!"

The ball didn't move, Rose chuckled at the small distant figure of Scorpius yelling something at the castle.

"Yeah, I can't hear you." the silver ball said bluntly. "You're ankle isn't any better, you're no help to anyone with an injury, and I have to insist that you go to the hospital wing." the ball paused, then spoke in a warning tone. "If go I'll be forced to tell Lunette."

Scorpius laughed, but obeyed the patronus and turned around to go back inside. Rose had played the Lunette card, they both knew that she was so motherly that he would end up being yelled at and smothered if he didn't. Rose, glad that she had stopped him from injuring himself further, quickly ran from her room to meet Scorpius.

He caught sight of her concerned face as he hobbled up the first flight of stairs. Despite the sharp pain, he caught himself smiling.

"You came all the way down to check on me?" he muttered, not really believing it.

"I didn't want to miss seeing you in pain." Rose laughed. She suddenly frowned at herself. Having been carried away with her concern for him, that she hadn't realised how it looked. Years of hating him looked rather silly. "Anyway, you need to get the nurse to look at your ankle." Without thinking Rose put his arm around her shoulder and tried to support him

They were able to swiftly get to the hospital wing where the nurse gave him something to numb the pain, then quickly healed his ankle.

"It'll be fine by the morning, but for tonight you'd better skip quidditch and just rest." she said sternly before charging away to her other patients.

"Thanks." Scorpius mumbled.

It took Rose a moment to realise that he was talking to her. "Oh, well, you would've done the same." she shrugged, her ears turned red and she looked at the floor. She cleared her throat and sat up straight, thinking her embarrassment was ridiculous. "Besides, I can't be a terrible person all the time. I have to do the bare minimum of good every now and then."

Scorpius smiled. He stood, his ankle feeling weak but no longer in pain.

"Can you get to your room without my help?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, I just might have to walk slowly."

"I'll walk slowly with you then."

Scorpius studied Rose's face as the made their way up the many stairs at a snail's pace. She didn't look happy or sad or angry, it was scarier than that, she looked numb. As if nothing and no one really mattered to her, that Rose was feeling like she just existed and nothing else. Yet she had cared enough to stop him for potentially hurting himself more, took him to the hospital wing, and was now staying with him instead of just ditching him in the hallway. Scorpius knew that she couldn't be feeling numb, but was instead hiding whatever it was she felt. He didn't want to pry, Scorpius knew that Rose would never tell him what was going on. He made a mental note to double check Lunette and Albus talked to her.

When they got to the common room Rose said good night, something she never did, told him to sleep well and then went to bed herself. The sun had barely set but she was emotionally exhausted. After not knowing how to feel about breaking up with Ben, and then feeling genuine concern for Scorpius, Rose just wanted to sleep and get them both out of her mind.

The following day no one saw much of Rose as she spent most of her time in her room, which was not wholly unusual, but she always left long enough for meals and to hang out with Lunette and Albus. Yet she was nowhere to be seen at breakfast, lunch or dinner. Scorpius lost count of how many times he climbed her stairs and almost knocked on the door but chickened out at the last minute, fearing the start of an argument. When he explained this to Lunette, she suddenly became very suspicious.

"So no one's seen her all day?"

Scorpius and Albus shook their heads.

"Fine, enough's enough, I'm talking to Ben about this. They must have argued or he tried to rush something." Lunette stood and walked with such purpose that first years leapt out of her way not to be trampled.

"We should follow her, right?" Albus asked Scorpius.

"You should, I'm going to the Slytherin common room. I told Hugo to meet me there for a game of chess."

Albus laughed as they both stood to leave. "You still haven't beaten him have you? Five or six years of knowing him and it bothers you that you've never won, doesn't it?"

Scorpius answered sheepishly. "It only bothers me a little bit."

Just three games of chess lost to Hugo later, Albus entered the Slytherin common room, an annoyed Lunette hot on his heels.

"Scorp, you've got to let us into the head common room." Albus leant down and muttered to him so that no other students could hear but him and Hugo. "Rose and Ben broke up, they didn't want to make a big deal out of it so that they could remain friends, but Lunette's pissed that Rose didn't even tell us." Albus eyed up his cousin, "I'm assuming you're not going to tell everyone? Your sister would kill me, probably literally kill me. And then she'd kill you next."

Hugo grinned. "I know, besides, despite your sister constantly jabbering away in my ear, we don't tend to gossip much with anyone else." Hugo packed away his chess set. "Good game Scorpius. I'm always happy to win. Good luck dealing with Rose."

When they reached the head common room, Scorpius hid in his own room, knowing that Rose wouldn't want him around. Albus knocked gently on Rose's door.

Rose groaned, she had gotten dressed that morning only to go straight to bed, her head aching. She hadn't slept all night. Her headache was finally going down and she decided to stop caring about Ben. But the door knocking irritated her immensely. It reminded Rose that the night before, for a brief moment, she allowed herself to worry and care about Scorpius again. And it had confused her again.

"What do you want Malfoy? I'm kind of in the mood to do anything else but have to see your stupid face." Rose shouted back. Albus laughed to himself and knocked again. "This better be life or death Malfoy! Or I can arrange those stakes!" Rose thundered to her door and wrenched it open, surprised to see Albus instead of Scorpius. "Oh, I thought-"

Albus grinned, "Yeah I heard what you thought."

"Sorry."

"Nah it's fine, I've been your best friend since we were in nappies, I'm used to everything now. Just a handy warning, Lunette is a little bit annoyed with you."

Rose's expression turned to one of concern. "Crap, what have I done?"

"Well, I'll tell you the truth, I'm a little annoyed too. Why didn't you tell us about Ben instead of hiding in your room all day?"

Rose sighed and shrugged. "Honestly? I don't know how to deal with breaking up with a guy that is actually decent."

Albus brought her in for a hug. "I know you don't like hugs, but this is happening."

Rose patted his back awkwardly. "Thanks Al."

They made their way down the stairs, Rose stumbled on the second to last one, bringing Albus crashing to the common room floor with her.

"Opps." Rose laughed and helped him up. She smiled at Lunette and sat down beside her.

"Rose Minerva Granger-Weasley!" Lunette shouted and began to pace. "Don't you smile at me! You should be upset!"

"Woah, what have I done to warrant the use of my middle name?" Rose raised her eyebrows.

"I just ran into Ben!"

"Yeah, Albus said…" Rose mumbled, the irritating worry of their moods finally set in.

"Yeah! I asked Ben if he had seen you at all today and he informed me that you broke up!"

Rose just nodded

"Yesterday! And you didn't think to tell me or anyone!"

"Lunette, I-"

Lunette sat down and made herself comfortable. "Right, tell me everything. Including why you didn't tell me before."

"I figured that you have enough to worry about with your parents, you didn't need to be bothered about my pathetic love life on top of it all."

"You're not pathetic Rose, I've never thought you were and I never will. Look, my parents have their own problems, but I care about you just as much and I want to hear what's going on."

"Alright," Then Rose launched into an almost word for word account of what had happened, only briefly mentioning Scorpius, but that was enough for Lunette as she had heard Scorpius talking and smiling from ear to ear that she had bothered to check up on him.

"And that was it? such a peaceful break up."

"Yup." Rose nodded again, she didn't really believe it was so peaceful either, yet she had been there and felt it.

"No one got angry?" Lunette cracked a smile and joked. "How the hell did _you_ manage that?"

"I don't know." Rose shrugged, she knew Lunette was trying to make her laugh, but she honestly did not know why she wasn't angry at Ben at all.

"It doesn't feel over, does it?" Albus, who had remained silent, guessed from across the room. He had been looking out the window to give Lunette and Rose space to talk, he then sat beside Lunette.

"I don't know, it wasn't very final. But we're definitely broken up, Ben was unlike any guy I've ever known and I should've tried harder. Maybe it doesn't feel final because there was never really a beginning. We fell into a relationship because we were friends and not much changed."

"I'm sorry to hear it Rose." Lunette smiled with sympathy. "No one can force feelings that aren't there though."

"Yep, and I don't I know it. Ugh, there's something wrong with me."

"Rose, Ben is nice and all, but are you sure you liked him? Don't take this the wrong way!"

"No, I know what you mean. I did like him, I really did, but it vanished quite quickly. There was no spark, and for some reason that wasn't good enough for me."

"I have to ask, when do you fight?" Albus cut in again.

Rose just looked confused.

Lunette understood where he was coming from and clarified the question. "When you're in a relationship with someone, when do you fight with them?"

"Never, if I can help it. I mean, there was a bit of frustration with Ben, but we let that go within seconds."

"That's not the way to go Rose. You're a naturally argumentative person, you have a temper, which isn't always a bad thing. Really think about it, when did you argue with Felix?"

"I guess, not until we broke up."

"And with Dan?"

"There he would get annoyed over something that had nothing to do with the relationship, but I would just walk off and try not to get angry at him."

"And then Ben?"

"Never, I mean, not really."

"You're meant to argue Rose." Albus spoke again. "Me and Lunette argue, not a lot, not all the time, and they only last a few hours. But at least we let our feelings out and try to be honest with each other. And by the next morning, we still really want to see each other."

"Maybe your next relationship should be with someone who you argue with but deep down you're grateful that they're in your life." Lunette chimed in slyly.

Lunette was trying to hint at something but Rose didn't pick up on it. Subconsciously, somewhere inside, a quiet voice knew exactly who Lunette was talking about. But her head wasn't ready to let her heart run free and so she pushed that thought deeper down and just laughed.

"Yeah right, I think I'm done with dating for a while." Rose scoffed and relaxed.

"It's probably best you got dumped by Ben. Imagine if you fell in love, and got married. You'd be Rose Rome which is just the worst name ever. Try saying it quickly." Lunette said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, well, I've thought about it. If I ever get married, I'm keeping my last name. Granger-Weasley just means too much to me."

"Lunette, she didn't get dumped by Ben, you heard her, it was a mutual thing." Albus piped up trying to not make Rose feel too bad.

"No Al, he might have said it that way, but he dumped me alright. I'm just wondering why he didn't do it sooner." Rose shrugged.

Albus and Lunette soon left as curfew was approaching. Rose and Scorpius, who had heard every word of the conversation about Ben, had a prefect meeting to conduct, and then went on their rounds. Not a word was spoken between them other than the necessary instructions. It put Scorpius in a sullen mood. Rose almost ignoring him was worse than years of arguing. It felt impersonal, after realising he didn't hate Rose, Scorpius could clearly see that every insult, hex and jinx was sent with some thought, even if that thought was how to annoy each other most. But at least they took the time to get to know each other in order to come up with each spell to drive each other crazy. Their conversations had, at least, some variation back when Scorpius was resolved to hate her, and while the intention was to hurt, often the outcome was a caring without meaning to.

Rose yawned as they traipsed into the common room late that evening. Rounds, prefect meetings and lack of sleep left her exhausted. Scorpius watched her slump away and take the first step to her room. A sharp thought entered his mind as he recollected the amount of times he had watched her walk away and not said anything when he should have.

"Oi, Weasley," the words were out of his mouth before he could rethink what he was doing.

Rose sighed with a tired note and turned around. "What?" Her eyes felt heavy.

"I'm, um, I'm sorry to hear about you and Ben breaking up, it can't be easy." Scorpius shrugged "He seems like a decent guy."

Rose glared at him and mocked his attempt at awkward comfort. "He _seems_ like a decent guy?! Do you hear yourself? Just days before we break up, you make little comments about him, and now you're suddenly feeling sorry for me."

"I just wanted to-" Scorpius was interrupted before he could stutter on.

"To do what? Make me feel worse about failing at a relationship with a _decent_ guy? Because you've succeeded."

"No, I didn't mean-"

"Just shut up." Rose's shoulders slumped and she rolled her head in exhaustion. "I've had enough of you confusing things. One minute we're ignoring each other, the next you're being nice, then somehow I find myself being nice, then it's back to criticising my choices, and now you're back to-what? I don't even know!"

"How am I confusing things? What am I confusing?" A glimmer of hope sparked it's way into his mind.

"You- I- we don't-" Rose couldn't think of what she wanted to say. She had spent two whole days trying to ignore her feelings and as a result had had very little sleep. "Ugh! Nevermind! I don't have to explain myself, especially not to you!"

"Fine." Scorpius muttered bluntly.

"Fine!" Rose huffed and turned back to her stairs, but she didn't make it quick enough. She felt the hot tears springing to her cheeks. She was almost silent, but one sniff and Scorpius heard.

"Did you just sniff? Did I hear you sniff?"

"No." Rose's voice was wobbly, her mind repeated the words 'don't cry, don't cry, don't cry' over and over again, but it was too late. And she hated herself for it.

Scorpius pushed back the Gryffindor tapestry, he tapped Rose, who was frozen on the second step, on the back and she slowly turned around.

"You're crying." He couldn't believe it, Rose never cried, everyone knew that, even her own brother had confirmed it.

"No I'm not." Rose bit her lip as another tear streamed off her face and landed on her jumper.

Scorpius put one hand behind her back, she let herself me gently taken to the sofa, where she sat alone and he sat on the floor beside her.

"I hate crying." Rose covered her face with her long sleeves.

"I know."

"Why am I crying?!" Rose let out an in irritated vent, then she answered her own question while trying to be sarcastic but only sounded more upset. "Ben was only the first boyfriend who I actually had stuff in common with and I screwed it up because I didn't like him as much as I thought I did." she tried to wipe away her tears but they kept coming, soon her eyes were redder than her hair. "I'm so pathetic, crying over some guy!"

"You're not pathetic." Scorpius's small voice lended some comfort.

"And why am I crying in front of you! Why did you get me to be emotional but not Lunette!"

He shrugged before answering, "Well, we kind of share the same living space. Your room is your safe space where you can be yourself, and I just happen to share part of the safe space. Even though you hate me," he paused for a moment and saw her expression turn to one of regret, dismissing it as a misunderstanding, he carried on. "you let your guard down in the common room."

"I suck at relationships, every guy I've ever dated has just gone down in flames."

"Hey, I'm no better. I've had one girlfriend and she only dated me because she wanted to get closer to Al." He couldn't help but laugh at his own stupidity.

"Why did you date her in the first place?" her tears had slowed as she frowned, remembering how much she disliked Holly.

Scorpius shrugged. "I guess I was just caught up in the prospect that someone might actually like me."

Rose nodded. "I've been in that position before."

Scorpius looked up at her, she was still crying a little bit. "I'm sorry I'm not so good with the whole comforting thing."

"Yeah, no kidding. You're sitting as far away as possible."

Scorpius leapt onto the sofa beside, not hesitating to put an arm around her. Rose stopped crying almost instantly, the sudden racing of her heart wrapped in Scorpius's arm sent her mind to stop caring about Ben more a moment.

She sighed, "Why do we do this? Have moments of, I don't know, not friendship, more than friendship but still less than, I don't know, something. Then whatever it is, we go on and pretend like it never happened. We leave these tiny moments unspoken. I go from days where I feel like I couldn't hate anyone more than you, to brief hours where my mind is convinced that we never stopped being friends."

"Our friendship may have been only a few years, but we both tried so hard for a while back there, that I feel like letting go is harder than fighting for it." He paused, and took a chance "We could try and be friends again."

Rose looked into his eyes and desperately wanted to say yes, but something held her back. Whether it was stubbornness and pride, or something else entirely, she wasn't sure. "No, surely we're beyond that point by now."

"You know what, you confuse the hell out of me too Weasley."

"I'm going to bed, emotions make me tired." She came out of his warm embrace and stood to leave.

"Did you ever kiss Ben?" The question came out of the blue, Scorpius didn't regret asking it but he realised it was a stupid question and he did not like the suspicious glare Rose sent him.

Rose's ears started burning, "Well, yeah, he was my boyfriend. Not that it's any of you business."

"What was it like?" His timid question came as he sat looking up at her.

"Why? Do you want to kiss him too?" Rose tried to laugh.

"No, I kind of want to kiss you again."

"Don't say that." Rose raked her hand through her hair and looked anywhere but at him, he had made her flustered again. "We can't go through this again, not now that we're head boy and head girl and have to share a common room." She took a step back.

"Well, why not?" Scorpius stood and faced her.

"Because," Rose's breath stopped short for a moment "just because." She saw his mood dampen again and guilt set in, the feeling wouldn't have come if Rose didn't believe in her heart of hearts that she wanted to be closer to him too. She shook her head and changed her tone to be stricter and she crossed her arms in defence. "And if you must know, I should've broken up with Ben the moment I kissed him and felt nothing. Not that you can rely on your emotions to tell you how you feel about someone because of a kiss, but it should've been obvious to me that I didn't like Ben that much." She loosely unfolded her arms and let them dangly limply by her side. She couldn't look at him again and stared at her feet while she mumbled. "The truth is, I can't feel much for anyone right now, I'm a mess and I'm too young to care."

"I get it." Scorpius suddenly smiled "But one day we'll be friends again, I swear. Even if it's when we're old and have to rely on walking sticks to move around, and our teeth are falling out so we have to use false ones."

"I doubt that," Rose mumbled, but she looked up at him and managed a smile "I keep very good care of my teeth, my grandparents were dentists. Ok, now I'm actually going to bed. And Malfoy,"

"Yes?"

"You tell anyone that I cried, and I'll rip your arm off and beat you with it."

"That's oddly specific."

"You've pissed me off many times, my vivid and violent imagination has had time to grow." She sent a cheeky and smug half smile his way before disappearing up to her room.

Scorpius sighed, he backed himself up against the arm of one of the sofas and flopped backwards on to it. His head narrowly missing the other arm of the sofa. He closed his eyes and thought of Rose, how he longed to hold her in his arms and tell her that Ben didn't matter.

"Stop it Scorp." He mumbled to himself. He thought of the two of them in their first year, how he had accidentally touched her hand in herbology and her ears turned bright red.

The next day he told Albus some of his thoughts.

"You're a heart breaking case Scorp, you know that right?" Albus patted his friend on the back as they walked from breakfast to their muggle studies lesson. It was their first lesson of the day and Scorpius had just finished telling him about his conversation with Rose the previous night, excluding the part where she cried. He would not break his promise.

"I actually spoke to her rather than letting her walk away. It was strange, I'm not sure I've ever done that before."

"Yeah, Rose is pretty good at having the last word and walking away."

 **VALENTINE'S DAY**

February 14th finally arrived and most of the students were getting ready by charming cards to sing or flowers to change different shades of red for a couple of hours. But not Rose, and not Scorpius. At breakfast, Lunette sat beside Albus and they behaved like their normal selves, very romantic, but on that particular day it was like someone turned up the cheesy romance to full. Scorpius sat staring at his porridge, already losing count of how many times he had told his best friends that Valentine's Day was celebrating a muggles Saint's death and that the whole day was a ridiculous waste of money and effort.

Rose walked into the hall with her nose stuck in a book. Albus and Lunette looked up from each others eyes long enough to watch Scorpius's attention be caught by her and his gaze followed her, his cheeks turn a pale pink. Albus started laughing and elbowed his poor lovesick friend.

"Merlin, you really have a massive crush on Rose." Albus said quietly and Lunette laughed in agreement.

The faint smile Scorpius hadn't realised was there, slowly dropped to an expressionless face that he had once been so good, at but years of being friends with Albus had opened him up.

"You guys are irritating romantic saps and I hate you both." he said in a grumpy sarcastic tone as he looked away from Rose and down at his cold porridge. He knew it was more than a crush, but he wasn't going to tell them that.

Rose sat down at the Gryffindor table, only putting her book down for a minute to make herself a cup of tea, before picking the book up again. Someone sat beside her and started scraping butter on toast very loudly, but she ignored it thinking it was just some third year excited for Valentine's Day. Rose drained her tea in a few gulps, snatched a untouched piece of toast, then made her way out of the hall. The person who had been sat beside her, also stood and started following. Rose had been wrong, the person beside her was her fifth year cousin.

"Rose!" Lily caught up with her, "We haven't spoken much this year, I think we need to have a catch up talk."

"Sorry, head girl duties had pretty much swamped all of my time." She slipped her book into her bag and led Lily to a quieter part of the corridor. "Oh, I broke up with Ben."

"Yeah, I heard. How are things in such close proximity to Malfoy?"

"Things are- I don't know. Confusing and irritating."

"So the usual when it comes to you two, except x10 because you're so close."

"Only sometimes, usually we ignore each other." Rose sighed, Lily's concerned expression unseen "I've been thinking, I need to get away. After Hogwarts I just need a fresh start somewhere. Distance myself from the familiar and see how I cope. Test myself, gain experience in the real world, that sort of thing."

"What did you have in mind?" Lily frowned, not liking the idea of rarely seeing her cousin at all.

"Well, Uncle Charlie is still running the program in Romania, training young people with dragons."

"You want to go to Romania?!" Hugo exclaimed as soon as he had finally caught up with Lily, Rose knew that she should've expected him to arrive, Hugo and Lily were rarely seen without each other.

"No, no." Rose began to deny but her head seemed to like the idea now that it was finally out loud, she grinned excitedly, with only a hint of mischief. "Actually, you know what? I think I might just do it!" She felt like laughing, she had something to look forward to after Hogwarts. Though Rose had not seen it in herself, something to look forward to, an escape, a chance to prove herself, was just the thing she needed. And that she had had no idea what she wanted to do all year, a weight felt suddenly lifted from her shoulders. It was as if her break up with Ben didn't seem to matter anymore, because that wasn't what had been keeping her down.

"She's grinning like a mad woman." Lily mumbled to Hugo, but neither took their alarmed eyes off of her.

"What do you mean 'like' a mad woman, she _is_ mad, I've been saying that for years." Hugo mumbled back.

Rose took a deep breath. "Anyway, how's it going with you? Still being chased by all the guys?" she turned to Lily, she saw Hugo roll his eyes.

"No, after last year the novelty of my appearance has worn off and people are starting to leave me alone. Probably because I don't really to talk anyone except Hugo."

"You say that like it's a bad thing!" Hugo accused and playfully elbow Lily. He looked between the two and felt he was intruding. "Umm, I've got a Herbology class," he looked at his watch, "to be super early too. Great. See ya." he left and Lily pointed a serious stare at her cousin.

"Nice catch up, I've got to go-" Rose felt a serious talk from Lily coming on.

"Rose, who do you talk to?" she jumped in.

"What?"

"It just, it seems to me that you've been pent up, not talking to anyone about how you're feeling about things and day to day life."

"Well, I talk to you." Rose shrugged.

Lily shook her head sadly and rested an arm on Rose's shoulder. "No, you used to talk to me but now we don't share a common room, and you've only got Malfoy near you, who do you open up to and be honest with? Everyone needs someone to listen, I have Hugo, Al has Lunette, Malfoy opens up to both of them. But I always see you rushing from prefect meeting, to prefect rounds, to class, or rushing to your room to do homework. And you always looked like you're holding something inside that might just burst one day."

Rose sighed, she couldn't be bothered to come up with some lie right that second. "You're right, and twice now, I've let everything build up to the very limit, and then I just burst and Malfoy happens to be there." it felt kind of refreshing to tell someone rather than pretend it never happened.

"You open up to _him_?" Lily's shock was apparent.

"No- yes- not on purpose, and not because I want to. He just happens to be there." After her mood had just suddenly improved, the thought of her embarrassment around Scorpius didn't upset her. "I hate to pay him a compliment, but he handles it quite well."

"I actually don't believe you." Lily raised her eyebrows.

"Welcome to the club." Rose chuckled

Lily blinked slowly, Rose was acting strange, but happy strange, and she wasn't sure if it was because her cousin was genuinely alright or was just pretending to be so. "And he's fine just talking to you about your feelings on things end everything?"

"Yeah," She nodded, but a memory of what Scorpius had said caught her, and she looked sadly at the ground. "he even mentioned us being friends again."

Lily recognised Rose's feeling of guilt. "That's not going to happen is it?"

Rose just shook her head. The bell rang and Rose stood up straight, her face back to neutral.

"I've got to go to Herbology, I'll see you later."

"See ya." Rose nodded and made her way to care of magical creatures.

Scorpius had just left the hall and saw Rose making her way outside to the freezing February fog for their class, he restrained himself form running to her so that they could walk together. He wanted to go back in time, just for a few seconds, just to slap his fourth year self.

"Ugh, I mean, it's Valentine's Day and I'm alone, how sad is that?" Scorpius heard a whiny voice behind him start muttering to her friend. "It's so boring being single."

He rolled his eyes and picked up the pace, but the whiny voice was still loud enough for him to hear.

"You know, I'm so sick of not having a boyfriend, that I'm tempted just to break up some couple and then keep the pieces for myself."

Her friend giggled and a male voice answered her. "Break up Potter and Lunette, that way I can get in on this too."

The friend who had giggled seemed to suddenly see all the hilarity stripped away from their plan. "Wait, no, you guys can't do that. If you're so desperate, why don't you just date each other?"

The guy scoffed. "I'm not dating Robin, she's already my ex. Besides, I want to date Lunette, I never got my chance before she got with Potter."

Scorpius hadn't realised his fists had clenched themselves and his teeth started to grind. So now he knew who two of them were. Robin Stirling and he recognised Grant Hathaway's voice. Hearing the second bell, Scorpius only just made it to his class on time, but the conversation kept on running over and over in his head. Scorpius's eyebrows furrowed as he thought of what to do. Rose was the only one to notice this, and she startled him by speaking, they had barely looked each other in the eye since she had cried.

"If the wind changes your eyebrows will stay like that." she mumbled with a monotone voice.

"What?" Scorpius jumped, "Oh, right." he mumbled. "I was just thinking about how people can be so fake, but too wrapped up in themselves to see that they're hurting people. I mean, the only good those sorts of people do, is when they can't keep secrets."

Rose shot a glance at him, Scorpius couldn't tell if it was a confused look or a glare. "Ok," she spoke slowly at first, but she sighed and went back to writing notes. "I never asked and I don't care."

"Cheerful as ever." Scorpius smiled and turned away from her.

"You have that effect on me." Rose retorted in dry sarcasm.

When the class finished, Rose had a free period and was making her way to the library, Scorpius had muggle studies with Albus, but decided to take the long way just so he could hang around Rose for a bit longer. Not that she wanted him, but that didn't stop him from trying.

"So, Weasley, no plans for Valentine's Day?" He caught up to her before they reached the castle doors.

Rose scowled at the ground, refusing to look at him. Ever since she had cried over Ben, she really didn't want to see anyone. It wasn't that she was hung up over Ben, she knew what feelings she might have had were long gone, but she was annoyed at herself for the relationship ending.

"What do you think? The day is a stupid made up holiday just for companies to make money off of nothing." she didn't sound like she was complaining and a thought suddenly occurred to her, that made losing Ben seem a bit brighter. "And I'm not in a relationship so no one can guilt trip me into marking the so-called 'occasion'."

"You regret breaking up with Rome?" Scorpius asked sadly, afraid of the answer.

Rose looked up, stopped walking and glared. "It's none of your business how I feel about my break up. I don't regret it, I don't regret anything except my own feelings, or lack of…." he voice trailed to silence and her shoulders drooped. "Go away Malfoy, enjoy the death of a guy who lived over a thousand years ago." Rose speed walked to the library, perplexed as to why Scorpius wouldn't leave her alone and she refused to believe it was because it was Valentine's Day, she thought the whole day was ridiculous.

The urge to stay with Rose was strong, but Scorpius dragged his feet to muggle studies, knowing that he couldn't miss a single lesson.

By the time dinner arrived, Scorpius had realised that he needn't have been on edge all day for Lunete anf Abus. They had barely spoken two words to anyone other than each other, Scorpius himself or Rose. And they were too encompassed in the whole romantic idea of the day that the couple didn't take their eyes of each other except to see where they were walking. But still the threat of Robin loomed, Scorpius rethought the overheard conversation again and again. All her knew about Robin was what he heard from from gossip, and she seemed like the sort of young woman who was too smart, and could manipulate anything she wanted. He considered talking to Rose about it, but she was still avoiding his eye contact. He couldn't wait until her embarrassment disappeared, and he had the suspicious feeling that it would go after a spout of anger directed at himself.

Albus and Lunette skipped off to spend time together in the Hufflepuff common room, while Rose and Scorpius met each other silently in the head common room to get ready to do rounds before curfew. He found himself stealing glances at her, considering what to stay and hoping she would speak. Luckily their awkward ignoring came to an end when irritating voices could be heard down the corridor. They charged ahead, Rose was the first to spot Robin and rolled her eyes. Scorpius saw his chance.

"Umm, I'll handle this. You go ahead and check the next floor." Scorpius spoke quickly.

Rose glared with suspicion, but then shrugged and walked off. Deciding that she didn't care enough about either of them.

"Shh, here he comes." Robin whispered to her friend who was having a hard time controlling a laugh. "Ah, Scorpius, how nice to see you." she grinned at him.

There was an awkward silence. Scorpius was sick of silence. After days of being partially ignored by Rose, the silence had a nagging effect on him. Robin glared at her friend who backed away to her common room.

Scorpius took a deep breath and cut to the point. "Look, I heard, and I'm asking you not to break up Al and Lunette."

"Oh how chivalrous, protecting your friend's relationship." Robin raised her eyebrows. "Is it really so fragile that you have to step in and save it from little ol' me."

Scorpius found his defences suddenly flare up as he saw the figurative corner she had backed him into. "They're not fragile, any relationship comes off bad if someone interferes." He scowled. "But I'll be damned if I let anyone try."

"Fine then," she shrugged "I won't, but only if you agree to give me a chance."

"Me?" Scorpius hadn't seen it coming, though he was annoyed at himself for being so stupid, of course Robin had an ulterior motive. He began to wonder why she wasn't in Slytherin.

"Yeah, as far as anyone can remember, you've only had one girlfriend, if you don't count that whole thing with Weasley before you started hating each other in fourth year." Robin batted her eyelids and shifted her weight from each foot.

"There was nothing between me and Weasley, ever." Scorpius said with a bite of more bitterness than he had intended to let on.

"It's all well and good saying it now that you despise one another." Robin nodded, but frowned when she realised that she was no longer the topic of the conversation. "Anyway, I don't want to talk about her." She tried her sweetest, most innocent smile. "Will you go out with me or not?"

Scorpius hesitated, not liking the dishonest gleam in her eye. His mind flickered to his feelings for Rose, how Rose never seemed untruthful, she either spoke her feelings or not. There was no deceit when it came to Rose, unless it was all in favour of a joke. Scorpius blinked hard, willing his feelings for Rose to subside, just for a moment. The only way to distract his heart from aching was to remind himself of how miserable Albus and Lunette were when they broke up before. Albus was like his brother, and he'd do anything to keep him happy.

"You'll leave Albus alone?"

Robin smirked "I never really wanted him in the first place, and I can't help but wonder what Tinker sees in him."

Scorpius grit his teeth, ignoring the slander of his best friends. "Fine, one date."

"Oh, I think you'll change your mind about that." Robin winked. "Now, I better get going. It's past curfew and I wouldn't want a detention. Happy Valentine's Day." she said and kissed his pale cheek before strutting off to the Ravenclaw common room.

By the time Scorpius caught up to Rose, she was already heading back to the head common room. She did not acknowledge him when she walked beside her, Scorpius groaned and rolled his eyes eternally. He cursed whatever had caught him in the situation of having feelings for a girl he thought he hated, and then somehow managed to end up forced into a date with a girl he did not care about in the slightest. Rose, unaware of Scorpius's self argument in his head as whether or not speak to her, found herself both irritated because she had been left to do the rounds on her own, and because she was curious as to what took Scorpius so long talking to Robin. Rose and Scorpius reached their rooms, without a single word spoken between them and the decision whether or not to start talking still had yet to reach a conclusion.

The clock ticked on, across the room from where Rose lay in her bed trying to sleep. She shut her eyes, tossed and turned, but she couldn't settle. It was as if something was nagging at her brain and she knew it had to be something to do with Scorpius. She knew by now that it was always because of Scorpius. She had barely spoken to him, barely looked him in the eye, since her break up with Ben. Partly, and the only reason Scorpius was aware of, because she had cried in front of him. But the other reason being that Ben thought she had feelings for Scorpius, feelings quite the opposite of the hatred she tried to show every day. And some part of her head thought that perhaps Ben was right, after all Rose did miss being Scorpius's friend. And while they had been friends, there were moments when she thought that perhaps they could have been more. Rose hadn't dared look Scorpius in the eye, she dared not to listen to the tiny insignificant voice in her mind telling her to at least try friendship again. Instead she listened to the clock as it wound its way around another hour.

She heard a floorboard creak in the room next to her. Scorpius was still awake. Rose had never been very good at patience. It was one of the many reasons why she wasn't surprised not to be put into Hufflepuff. So when her mind starts racing going around in circles and she still couldn't sleep, Rose acted on impulse. She tripped down her own stairs, not really feeling the pain of a stubbed toe, and carefully climbed up the stairs leading to Scorpius's room. She knocked on the door a little too hard.

Scorpius jumped at the sound.

"Weasley?" he asked cautiously as he sat in bed with his book laying open and forgotten beside him. He began to think he had imagined the knock. "Wishful thinking" he muttered bitterly under his breath.

But there was a knock on his door again. Scorpius yawned and swung it open, fully prepared to see no one there and confirm it was all in his head. The sight a very wound up Rose startled him. She looked as though she would burst if she didn't speak.

"I'm done being embarrassed. Can we go back to arguing?" She blurted out in one breath.

Scorpius blinked, "Sure," he answered automatically. His head finally caught up and the thought of going back to arguing hurt his heart. He didn't want to argue with Rose anymore, but if it was the only way for them to talk, then he would suffer through it. "Whatever." he mumbled. He stood up straight and looked her in the eye, she was still uncertain. "There was no need for you to be embarrassed anyway. It's not like I told anyone. You might hate me, but that doesn't justify me telling people about shit you don't want them to know."

"I know," Rose signed and her shoulders visibly relaxed. "I know you wouldn't tell anyone. I might hate you but despite myself I know I can trust you." She rolled her eyes, mostly to herself "Which is why I realise I was being stupid. If we have to work together as head boy and head girl, we need to stop the whole ignoring thing."

Scorpius stared at her face, her eyes slightly covered by a mass of curly hair. "Is there any chance we can be friends again?" He saw Rose tense, but he quickly continued before she could argue. "I know I messed up with the whole, you having a boyfriend, thing. But we were kids back then, I didn't know any better. I took it too far and you took it too seriously. And when I look back at it now, it seems like a stupid thing to end a friendship over, you're not even with Stirling-"

"Malfoy that's not why we're not friends. Yes that argument started it, but that's when I realised that you never trusted me as much as I trusted you. Trust is a two way thing, you were never open with me like you were for Al, and I had had enough." Rose couldn't help but sadly smile, "I guess I was jealous of your friendship with Al. I just wanted to be close to you as well."

Scopius squeaked. Knowing that he had been jealous of Felix Stirling, was the only reason why they had argued about it in the first place. And to hear that Rose had been jealous too, was just too much of a heartbreaking coincidence, that he felt like screaming at himself.

"You know what's really silly?" Rose continued, looking embarrassed. "I actually convinced myself, a few times, that I was different to you. So, yeah, you had Al and were really close to him because you were such great friends. And instead of admitting jealousy, my brain ignored the obvious and decided to invent this fanciful notion that I was somehow special, and more than a friend to you." Rose chuckled. "Kids can be so dumb sometimes." she turned and began to descend the stairs, stopping only briefly, "Good night Malfoy." she said without looking at him and went back to her room.

If she had been looking, Rose would have seen Scorpius's mouth gaping knew his own jealousy of Rose and Al's close relationship, but had never realised that Rose had been jealous of his own closeness with Al. He wanted to call out to her, confirm her 'fanciful notion' that she was indeed, and always had been, very special to him. Scorpius's voice was stuck in his throat. And, for what seemed like the hundredth time, he watched Rose walk away when he wanted to say so much more to make her stay.

 **MARCH**

News of Scorpius and Robin's first date in Hogsmeade travelled fast. Mostly because Robin spread the gossip herself and, just to prove the point further, she clung to his arm as they walked down from the school with the rest of the students, grinning with smug triumph.

Scorpius couldn't say he was happy at all. He would much rather have spent the whole day with Albus and Lunette, or in the shared common room with a book, or, if he was completely honest with himself, Scorpius knew that he's rather spend the whole day with Rose smiling by his side, then he would be happy wherever they were. But he reminded himself that that wasn't going to happen, probably ever.

Robin noticed his disinterest. "I know I was the one who asked you out, and that might bother your fragile male ego, but can you at least try and look like you're happy to be dating me."

Scorpius held the door open for her as they entered the Three Broomsticks, his face wearing an expression of pure apathy. "We're not dating, we're just on a date." he mumbled, "And why would I care that you asked me? What difference would that make to my happiness? I don't want to do this."

They sat down at a table in the corner of the room, Robin tried holding Scorpius's hand but he snatched it away.

"You're impossible Scorpius." She chuckled, seeming unfazed by his discomfort. "But I will not be put out. I told you I would change your mind about this one date, and I will. You're going to have fun and enjoy my company whether you like it or not."

"You make no sense." Scorpius grumbled as he stood to go and order butterbeer from the owner, Hannah Longbottom.

"Ah, young Malfoy! What can I get you?" She said kindly, after the battle at Hogwarts Hannah had seen a new side in herself, she was someone more self-confident but remained kind and still flustered under pressure. Hannah's ownership of the pub was made most students respect her husband enough for them to see what a good teacher he was. And of that, she was more proud.

"Two butterbeers please Mrs Longbottom." Scorpius asked gloomily, though his mood had slightly improved as he spoke to someone other than Robin.

"I see you got a date." Hannah grinned. "What happen to your thing with our Rose then? Did it all fall through?" she asked, having seen Scorpius with Albus all the time, having heard bits and bobs from Neville and being practically another aunt to Rose, Hannah had assumed some sort of relationship.

Of course, Scorpius didn't know this, so he simply frowned and wondered where on earth the Three Broomsticks owner got that idea from. "Well, there was nothing there to begin with." Scorpius said uncertainty.

Hannah knew that tone of voice, the young man before her seemed disappointed. She smiled knowingly, "Whatever you say." She slid the butterbeer to him over the counter. "Have fun and tell little Al I said hello, if he's not hanging around with you then I'll assume he's not coming down this weekend."

Scorpius nodded, still not really sure what she was saying, and rejoined Robin. She whispered in Scorpius's ear as soon as he sat down, making him jump. She was too close and it made him uncomfortable.

"Our dearest friend in the world just walked in."

The whisper made Scorpius prickle and he visibly cringed and shuffled a little bit away from her. But her words had caught his attention, and he looked up to the door. Rose was making her way behind Lily and Hugo, to the bar. She had two books in her arms and a bag overflowing with parchment covered in her rushed handwriting. Rose looked around the room as well, she spotted Scorpius and almost found herself smiling, until she saw Robin beside him. She was shocked. But some suspicious part of her mind told her it was obvious and that she should have guessed earlier. Rose sent her glaring eyes towards Scorpius, completely ignoring Robin. Then she turned, muttered some lousy excuse to her cousin and brother, then marched out.

As soon as the door closed after Rose, Scorpius stood in an instant. Robin barely had time to recognised that Scorpius was moving, before he darted towards the door. Hugo managed to catch Scorpius's eye before he was out of the door, the disappointed look from the young ginger boy, drove home the question as to what on earth had possessed him to agree to even speak to Robin in the first place.

Scorpius threw open the door, only to find Rose had stumbled over the step and fallen, instead of getting up, Rose's priority was the books she had dropped which were worryingly near to the remains of the melting sludge that had been snow. Knowing she'd hex him if he tried to help, Scorpius backed away into the Three Broomsticks. He'd take his chances of an insufferable conversation with someone he didn't know very well but was certain he would end up hating. He knew that whatever shouting Rose might have in store for him, could wait until they were in the shared common room. They both knew that the head boy and girl had to keep up appearances for a morally strong and harmonious student body.

Rose headed straight for the library, her sole intent was to spend the entire weekend in the library and hope that she wouldn't run into anyone except for Katie, who usually stayed quiet.

But being alone was the last thing she should have done. As the hours passed, she couldn't stop thinking about Scorpius and Robin. It made her blood boil with his hypocrisy. She couldn't concentrate on the story of the MacBoon family of the Isle of Drear transfiguring themselves into man eating Quintapeds, so she packed up her care of magical creatures textbook and left the library. She was just thinking about how she would have the common room to herself for a few hours, and how she was going to read a fictional wizard book that her grandma had sent. When Rose ran into Ben in the corridor outside her common room.

"Ben, hi." Rose smiled, she finally felt how good it was to see him as a friend, it felt natural but still a bit awkward.

"Rose." he said with a grumble and a nod before strutting off.

Rose frowned, but shrugged off his grumpiness.

"Wait." His voice called her back. "I want to talk to you." he mumbled and looked around to check that no one else was around. He took a deep breath and looked her up and down. He shook his head sadly and a bitter glare came over his eyes. "I don't get you Rose, you don't seem that bothered by our break up."

"What?" she was taken aback, Rose thought there was no need for further discussion after their break up in the library. "We agreed to just be friends."

"Well, no offence, but you're acting like a heartless robot who doesn't have any feelings. Or, dare I say it, a ginger with no soul. Aren't girls meant to be more emotional?" there was no civility in his expression, just one of malice that Rose hadn't seen before.

" _Excuse me?!_ " Rose growled through gritted teeth. "No offence?! Ben, why are you saying these things?!". Rose knew it was her fault that they broke up, but she wasn't going to take any abuse laying down.

"Look, we broke up because our feelings didn't match up, I get that. I can't shake the feeling that it was probably because you have feelings for… well, someone else." Ben continued to grumble, he didn't want to say Scorpius's name, it made his bitterness increase. "But I know that you did like me at some point, and we had fun. Why do I feel like I'm the only one who's bothered by our break up? Do you know what I did straight after? I ran to my room and cried."

"You cried?" Rose whispered in disbelief.

"Yeah, men cry, I'm not ashamed and crying doesn't make me any less of a man." Ben stuck up his chin.

"Well I know that," Rose rolled her eyes, she wasn't about to get into a debate as to whether or not it's manly to cry. It was the sort of pointless thing that common sense made obvious.

Scorpius had managed to pry himself away from Robin and just wanted to spend the rest of the day in the common room where he assumed Rose would be. So he was a bit surprised to see her in the corridor talking to her ex. He felt jealous again, but reminded himself that he really shouldn't be. Creeping closer, he could hear what Rose was saying, and to hear Rose putting herself down, it hurt more than Scorpius thought it ever would.

"I'm not worth crying over." She said in a matter of fact manner. "I'm really not. I didn't treat you way you should be treated, I managed to hurt you and ruin a perfectly good friendship. I'm not worth your time, energy or tears.."

"Oh, and you didn't cry because you really are a heartless-" Ben spat, Rose interrupted.

"Don't say it!" Rose put her hand up to stop him. "Ben, I've thrown myself into my education. I know I did that before, but I've barely given myself time to think about anything but N.E. . My feelings," she finally spotted Scorpius coming towards their common room, she sighed and looked at the ground, "My feelings are conflicting right now and I don't want to think about it."

"Well it's nice to know that I meant something to you." Ben said sarcastically. "Look, Rose, if you didn't like me that much, why did you agree to go out with me?"

"Are you kidding?" Rose raised her eyebrows. "You were the first guy I dated that I actually cared about! You flirted with my best friend and my cousin once and I almost hurt someone!" she refused to look up at Scorpius approaching, she knew that he could hear but she didn't want to stop her flow. This needed to be said to Ben otherwise he would want to bring it up again and again and then they would never be able to work together. That was the last thing the quidditch team needed. Rose took a deep breath. "You told me to give McLaggen a chance, and I had never been more angry with him in my life. I admit that when we went out, I didn't really feel much more than friendship." Rose shrugged, she felt like a crappy person. She had genuinely liked Ben, but other new feelings kept on popping up. "I liked you, honestly I did. I just didn't like you in the way that I thought I did, if that even makes sense. I had two relationships before you and I was never felt for them what I thought I felt for you. Look, this, all of this, was-is my fault. I'm not worth your tears, I'm not worth your anger. I'm no good for anyone right now."

"Oh, right, yeah. Because you had feelings for someone else." Ben said accusingly.

"Wait, no that wasn't it." Rose frantically shook her head, knowing that if Scorpius heard that then he would be smug all day and she would just be embarrassed. And she was already annoyed with him.

"It's alright, I won't tell anyone about you feelings for him." Ben saw Scorpius out of the corner of his eye, he turned around and rolled his eyes before turning back to Rose.

"No, you're wrong, it's nothing like that. I don't'-"

"It's ok Rose I won't say anything to anyone."

"No-"

"Malfoy is probably a slick git just like his dad and his grandfather. You guys will be great together." Ben shrugged with defeat and tried to walk away.

Rose instantly stopped her need to make him understand that she had no feelings for Scorpius. Scorpius himself slumped and wished he could apparate within school walls. He was mortified that people still thought of him that way. She was angry.

Rose tapped Ben on the shoulder, and he turned around to look at her.

Her eyebrows knitted with anger, "Don't you _dare_ insult the head boy to my face. He happens to be very dear to my cousin and to my best friend, might I add. Ben, you're lucky that I'm head girl and meant to be a good natured example to the younger students, or I would hex you so bad that your own family would fear the sight of you."

"So much for an amicable break up. I guess your incapable of that."

"I would've been, but you brought Malfoy into this for no reason. You also just judged him on his last name, something that my cousins and I have all been through. And we've had enough of it. You might not realise it Ben Rome, but a family name as well known as Weasley, or Potter, or Malfoy, always gets recognised for its reputation. People judge us before they even know us." she growled. "I wanted to be your friend again Ben, you're a good quidditch captain and we need to get along, but I don't know if I can anymore. I thought you were better than this" she huffed and stormed to the head common room hidden door. Ben was gone by the time she got there, and Scorpius had already made his way gloomily inside.

Rose got inside and closed the door, she leant against it a sighed. It had been a long day, and it wasn't even over yet. She swung her bag off her shoulder and started unloading her textbooks and papers onto her desk. One glance at Scorpius's desk across from hers and she could see he that he had started drafting a revision timetable already.

As Scorpius came down from his bedroom, he was about to speak to Rose, who had her back to him, but was interrupted by an unfamiliar screech-owl swooping through the open window with a note. It landed by Scorpius, dropped him a note and then flew out the window again. Confused, Rose and Scorpius stood watching the open window in silence. Owls never came into their common room. They got their post from the same place as everyone else, in the great hall. Thinking the note must be important, Scorpius quickly opened it. Curious, Rose kneeled on the window seat and peered outside. Far below she could see a few students hanging around, the screech-owl leaping off one of the student's arms and heading to the owlery. They were Ravenclaws, she could see as much from their uniforms, but other than that they were too far away to see any recognisable faces. An annoyed groan from Scorpius, pulled Rose away from the windowsill.

"Urgent message?" Rose asked as she returned to organising the books on her desk, trying not to sound as curious as she really was.

Scorpius re-read the short note, then threw it in the fire. "Just a note from Robin."

"Oh, right. You're dating Robin Stirling now aren't you." Rose felt her annoyance from the library return.

Scorpius slumped on the sofa, he knew what was coming and thought it better to face it head on.

"Don't bother, I know what you're going to say."

Rose sharply turned around. "Oh no you don't. Don't brush me off, you are going to listen, you foul git." she leant on the back of the opposite sofa and glared. "You think you can date Robin and expect me not to say a word. But when I dated her brother you took the piss."

"Do not bring up Felix, he was nothing to you and you know it." he rolled his eyes.

Rose smirked "And Robin means so much to you does she? Well perhaps I should just reiterate what you said to me." She stood up straight, " _This relationship clearly shows that you have poor judgement, so I don't trust you_. I guess, you won't have the problem of her being too nice, but you might get in trouble with her _smothering you and being too clingy, and then you know to break up_." Rose felt herself get worked up as she glared once more. "I think I deserve this Malfoy, to finally stand here and coldly criticise everything about someone you're in a relationship with. Oh wait, my opinion doesn't and never has mattered to you!"

"Should I be flattered or worried that you remember all that?"

"Malfoy, you loathsome gargoyle-!" she charged round the front of the sofa.

Scorpius quickly stood up and interrupted her. "Ok, ok, but you can't use Felix Stirling against me. That's not fair and you know it!"

"Why not?" she crossed her arms. "You spent years pretending to be my friend, only to then go destroy all confidence I've ever had in a relationship! Double standards, it's not alright for me but it's fine for you!"

"That's not fair, it's different now, back then I didn't know how I-" he paused and thought about what he truly wished he could say- 'I didn't know felt about you, I didn't know that I was jealous. That I wanted, and still do want, to be with you romantically. Because I might be seventeen years old but I'm bloody well on my way to falling in love with you.'-He said none of this outloud, but stood staring hopelessly into her eyes.

"Surprise me Malfoy, what didn't you know?" she mocked, not knowing his heart.

"Never mind." he sighed, disappointed with himself "I have a girlfriend to go and meet up with."

"After seven years of knowing you, you are still unbelievable." Rose scoffed and fell onto the sofa. "Poor little Malfoy only knows how to destroy a so called friendship and ruin what little self-confidence a girl had in her ability to function in a relationship."

Scorpius sat down again. "I never meant to end our friendship, I never meant to screw up your self-confidence."

Rose leant back and stretched herself out on the sofa, knowing that a fight was pointless. They both knew she was right, but that didn't hurt her any less. She couldn't look him in the eye, and spoke softly.

"You never thought of the consequence your words had, did you? Our friendship might have meant so little to you that you didn't think twice about knocking me down, it meant so little that you didn't even care about me. But once upon a time, you meant a hell of a lot to me." Rose suddenly realised what she had said, all her anger suddenly turned from Scorpius to herself. "Forget I said anything" she stood, grabbed her gryffindor scarf from her desk and left the common room.

Scorpius watched the fire burn away the note from Robin. He could barely muster the motivation to go and meet her in the great hall, but he managed it after some time.

Rose, meanwhile, had met up with Lunette and Albus in the courtyard. All of them bundled in their scarves, the sun was only just peeking through the clouds, it would soon set, and it was a cold afternoon in March. Albus and Lunette sat side by side while Rose kept on getting up to pace in front of them. Half to keep herself warm and half out of annoyance with Scorpius.

"I cannot believe he is going out with her." she muttered.

"It is a bit out of the blue isn't it." Albus agreed.

"Why are you smiling?!" Rose stopped short when she noticed Lunette hardly containing a grin.

"Oh no reason, you just seem very put off by it all." Lunette shrugged, her smile growing wider.

"Well of course I am. He has the nerve to- ugh!" Rose sat next to Lunette in a huff "The argument that tipped us off the edge of being friends, into full on enemies was the whole bloody thing with Felix. And now he has the bloody nerve to go out with Felix's sister!"

"Jealousy takes it toll." Lunette spoke in a matter-of-fact tone that made Albus laugh.

"What?" Rose was bewildered.

"He won't know how you feel unless you tell him Rose." Lunette answered.

Rose frowned. "He already knows that I hate him."

"That's not what I mean and you know it. Tell him how you feel about this Rose, you might be surprised how much your opinion means-" Albus started to join in.

"My opinion has never meant anything!" Rose interrupted loudly, half standing up in the process.

"Ok calm down." Lunette put a comforting hand on Rose's shoulder and guided her friend to sit down again. "You're wrong, but you don't want to hear that so pretend I said nothing.

"Sometimes I don't understand you two." Rose rolled her eyes.

"That's because we're honest with our feelings." said Albus as Lunette rested her head on his shoulder.

"Thin ice Al, you're on thin ice with me." Rose grumbled.

"Yeah right, you could never be mad at me." Albus smiled smugly.

"Well it's nice that you're talking to us. It's been a while." Lunette changed the subject.

"You guys were always with Malfoy." Rose shrugged.

"And despite having a boyfriend and plenty of friends, you've been on your own all year. Rose stop pushing us away and blaming Scorp. It would make everything easier if you guys were friends again, I bet you'd both be happier that way as well, but it's going to happen any time soon."

"No it's not. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry, just come back to us. We want our Rose back."

"I don't know what I'd do without you guys." Rose smiled. They were right of course, since getting a room to herself and only having to share the common room with one other person, Rose had slipped into the habit of being alone. Wanted to be on her own wasn't a bad thing, but it did mean that she often neglected to talk to her friends as often as she should have. Rose also knew that, had she not been so wrapped up in being on her own, her year at school might've been improved considerably by being around Lunette, Al and Lily.

"I often think the same thing," Lunette said with a sigh. "You know, I've never had friends like you guys. You practically saved me at Christmas, Rose."

"You would've done the same for us." said Albus.

"Where is your dad now?" Rose asked.

"Dad's not found anywhere for us to live yet. I mean, he's got a flat with an extra bedroom but he keeps saying that, if it's just the two of us, we'll need more space. Well, I keep saying that I'm at Hogwarts until June, so it doesn't really matter." Lunette complained as she thought about the daily letters she received from her recently very apologetic father. "Though mum is back in France so there's a chance that he might get the house."

"How is your mum?"

"I wouldn't know, she doesn't write to me." she grumbled. "On the up side, if she's not contacting me then neither are my grandparents."

Albus wrapped his arms around Lunette and kissed her forehead, Rose patted her comfortingly on the shoulder.

"Mum did say that you're welcome to stay at our house after graduation, until you find a job and a place of your own." Rose added.

"My parents said the same." Albus added. "My dad was taken in by my mum's side of the family, he knows firsthand what it's like to come from a family that have no interest in you."

"That's very kind, but I really think I can convince dad that I don't care where I stay as long as I have my own room."

The next morning was a Sunday. Scorpius and Rose had gone to bed without seeing each other since their argument. So when Rose came down from her room to see Scorpius busy writing away at his desk, she was quite content not to say a word and just sit down to do some revision of her own. Scorpius glanced at her a few times, trying to think of what to say, but nothing came to mind. And hour passed, it was soon mid morning, so they both popped down to the great hall for breakfast. Not meaning to leave at the same time, but it happened all the same. Walking unintentionally side by side, ignoring one another. Rose took her seat beside Lily and Hugo, Scorpius sat next to Albus at the end of the Slytherin table. Robin made sure to catch Rose's attention when she strode up to the Slytherin table to kiss Scorpius on the cheek before returning back to the Ravenclaw table. Rose shrugged it off, she didn't particularly care. Scorpius was embarrassed at the attention and wished he had never agreed to go out with Robin, he reminded himself it was to keep her away from Albus and Lunette. Though he wasn't sure Robin had been telling the truth, he couldn't risk it on the off chance she wasn't.

The entire afternoon they managed to avoid each other. Rose spent the rest of the morning with Lily, then met up with Albus and Lunette in the afternoon. While Scorpius spent the morning with Albus and Lunette, leaving them to go to the library because he knew that Rose would want to see them but wouldn't if he was around. Besides, even if Robin found him, she could not get away with talking in the library. He ended up spotting Katie Webb, a friend from Ravenclaw, in the library and worked quietly with her.

Rose and Scorpius didn't look each other in the eye until the prefect meeting. They did their rounds together in silence. Then returned to their common room in silence. Rose sat down on one sofa and Scorpius was about to sit on the one opposite when Rose shouted in alarm.

"DON'T!" She half stood up and stuck her arm out to stop him from sitting.

"What, you really hate me so much you'll deny me sitting even near you? We share a common room Weasley, you've got to get used to me at some point." Scorpius mumbled bitterly.

Rose spoke calmly with a hint of amusement in her tone. "I was just going to say that I had a Mimbulus mimbletonia in here earlier, and I dropped it on the sofa and that's when Stinksap got everywhere." She sat back down on the clean sofa and shrugged. "I tried to clean it up, I didn't do a good job of it. But if you want to sit there just to be near me," she mocked smugly, "then be me guest." Rose looked up and hit him with an amused grin.

Scorpius looked at the sofa, then back at Rose. "Why did you have a Mimbulus mimbletonia up here?" Was all he could think to ask, her clumsiness was nothing new or surprising.

"Katie asked me to look after it for her while she went to the library. Madam Pince yelled at her for trying to take it in." Rose said casually and found her book under a pillow. She started reading, but looked up with a jolt when she felt the other half of the sofa move.

Scorpius sat beside her and nodded when she peered at him.

"When's your next quidditch practice?" He asked, trying to start a conversation. His spirits raised when Rose put down her book to answer.

"Tomorrow."

They took a moment to watch each other, neither one wanting to admit it but they enjoyed the company after a long weekend.

Scorpius was desperate to say something else before she went back to her book to ignore him, or back to her room. So his mouth formed a random sentence that he didn't think twice about.

"You know, the Ancient Greeks believed that redheads turned into vampires when they died."

Rose frowned in confusion, "I'm sorry, what?" she asked in bewilderment with a muddled expression.

"Well, you know, redheads are pale and so they stay out of sunlight for prolonged periods of time and-"

"No no, I don't care. But why on earth did you say that- Oh never mind, I suppose I'll never understand you." Rose sighed and stretched lazily.

A thought occurred to Scorpius, and just like his random fact, he couldn't stop himself from saying it out loud. "After this year we might never see each other again Weasley.

"Don't celebrate too loudly." Rose shrugged, not looking at him. She flicked through the pages to find her book mark.

"We were friends once, come on, at least pretend to feel some sort of emotion other than hate."

She stopped and slammed the cover. "What do you want me to say Malfoy? You're still friends with Albus so I'll probably run into you inevitably at some point, and we can trade insults then." Rose rolled her eyes.

"That's not what I meant. Merlin you're an impossible git sometimes." Scorpius slumped in defeat.

"You're not exactly making yourself clear dipshit." Rose darted a glare to him. 'Great, and I'm back to insults', she internally groaned at herself.

"If I was completely clear with you then-" he paused, and looked around the room. Neither were sure what the exact rules were for letting friends into the common room, and neither wanted to find out just in case the rules were a lot stricter than they assumed. "do you ever wonder, if people overheard our conversations, would they believe it?"

"I don't think some people even believe we were ever friends. Sometimes I don't believe it myself, and sometimes I don't think you could even call it a friendship."

"Weasley, please-" Scorpius whispered.

"Please what?" Rose sat up, quickly crossed her legs and turned to face him, ignoring the few cushions that she knocked on the floor in the process. "We can't be friends again and you know that. We used to argue too much back then, and we've argued far too much since and nothing can get over that. And I don't believe that you actually want to be my friend."

"You don't trust me?" Scorpius asked but it sounded more like a statement.

"What kind of question is that?" Rose readied herself for another rant, but the look in his eye prompted her to say the truth. " You know what, as much as we dislike each other, and I can't believe I'm saying this, I've been around you long enough to know that I can trust. If I wanted to, which I don't."

"You are one of the only people on this planet that I trust wholeheartedly." Scorpius looked her dead on in the eye. Mentally he pleaded with her to understand.

"Well then, it's too bad that you hate me." Rose stood and snatched her book from the sofa and went to her bedroom.

 **APRIL**

The next morning Rose got up early, grumbling as she stumbled around her room still half asleep trying to find bits of her quidditch kit. There was a morning practise. She tried not to think about how awkward it would be with Ben, she had thought that perhaps they would have been fine, but after their argument just two days previous Rose had no such hopes. She only knew that she was determined to be civil. However, Rose wasn't foolish enough to think that if Ben himself or any of her teammates said something about the breakup then her temper wouldn't be set loose. She knew that was a very likely scenario. Rose took a deep breath halfway through pulling her socks on and looked out at the pale grey sky over the quidditch pitch and the light drizzle of rain.

'At least I can spend the morning flying around with Lily.' she thought to herself and pulled her sock up, slipping over in the process and knocked a bottle of perfume on her foot. She sighed and muttered ' _reparo_ ' the mending charm.

Scorpius had sent a note to Albus the night before asking him to come to the head common room before breakfast. So he also woke up early and met Albus outside the prefects bathroom. ALbus greeted him with a smile, Scorpius could only manage a nod.

"Can't even pretend to be happy to see your best friend" Albus tutted as they made their way to the common room. "What's eaten you?"

"Nothing, just one of those crappy days where you wake up on the wrong side of the bed after have very little sleep and then find yourself in a bad mood all day."

"Well, I'm glad I came up to visit you. What do you need?"

"You're good at charms right? Can you help me with this sofa, there's stink sap all over it apparently." Scorpius limply pointed to the sofa in question.

Rose left her room on time, still feeling groggy and tired. She was surprised to see Albus and Scorpius working together over one of the sofas.

"Oh hey Rose." Albus grinned.

"Morning Al." Rose croaked.

"Morning!" Scorpius suddenly shot up from the sofa and grinned at her. His gloominess improved to genuine cheer in an instant upon seeing Rose.

It took everything in Albus not to point and laugh.

"Oh bloody hell," Rose grumbled some more. "it's so early in the morning. How are you in a good mood already? I swear on Merlin's trousers, if you don't stop smiling I'll throw something at you."

"Ah, Rose in the morning, it's always a pleasure." Al smirked again, this time it earned him a glare from Rose.

"What's got you so happy?" She asked Scorpius before yawning.

"My best friend is here, it's a beautiful day-"

They all looked out the window as the light rain had turned to thunder and lightning cracked the sky, the rain became louder and louder as it fell heavier.

"Yeah whatever." Rose left rolling her eyes.

Scorpius sighed and slumped on the freshly cleaned sofa as he watched her walk out the door, he saw Albus sniggering beside him.

"What?"

"You couldn't love her more even if you tried." Albus's smug expression lingered.

"Oi, watch it. I've got a girlfriend."

"A girlfriend you don't like."

"Yeah, Robin is bloody annoying." Scorpius was down again and Albus sat beside him. "She keeps on trying to guilt trip me into spending more time with her. And the guilt trip and manipulation isn't working, I don't care about her enough to fall for it. I hate having a girlfriend that I don't like."

"You only hate having a girlfriend because the girlfriend isn't Rose. I know you too well buddy." Albus patted his friend on the shoulder. "Why don't you break up with her? I mean, you didn't want to go out with her in the first place, I have no idea why you agreed to go on that date."

"Yeah, whatever." Scorpius said in a gloomier way than Rose had when she left.

"Seriously, break up with her." Albus rolled his eyes, "Even Lunete, who thinks that every couple is cute and wants everybody to stay together, would recommend it."

Scorpius shrugged helplessly. "I can't"

"Why-" Albus paused to think for a moment. "oh I get it. Typical Scorpius. You don't want to hurt her feelings!" he laughed sympathetically. "That's it isn't it!"

"Well, can you blame me? I don't need anymore enemies," Scorpius tried to defend himself. "Weasley hating me is already killing me, I don't want more people being pissed off the moment I enter a room."

"But you don't care about Robin. And by staying with her you're only hurting yourself."

"I know." Scorpius picked up a scarf from under the sofa that had been dropped days ago, it was Rose's Gryffindor one.

Albus sighed and shuffled to look directly at his friend. "Merlin's beard, you're too nice for this world"

"I wish Weasley knew that." Scorpius starred at the scarf in his hands.

"You could start by calling her by her first name." Albus said bluntly.

"She'd kill me, _literally_ kill!" he stood and put the scarf on Rose's desk. "You know, when she found out I was dating Robin, she was only mad at me because of the whole argument we had in fourth year about Felix Sterling. It's completely hopeless. Not that I'm going out with Robin to make her jealous- it would be nice if she reacted just a bit differently, in some way that showed she cared- oh who am I kidding?" Scorpius slumped down on the sofa next to Albus.

"You're a heartbreaking case Scorp, and I'd tell you to give up on her if- if I didn't think that maybe there were some hope for you guys."

"So, it's not hopeless?" Scorpius sharply turned to look at Albus.

Albus shrugged. "Now don't get too excited, it's just the opinion of your two closest friends, who also happen to be Rose's closest friends as well" this time he patted his friend sympathetically on the head. It had become his way of comforting Scorpius, almost treating him like an upset puppy or a lonely kitten. "Come one mate, I want some breakfast."

Rose had met Lily outside of the Gryffindor common room and they walked down to the great hall for breakfast. Hugo was also there, still in his pyjamas, he nodded to his sister and told them to have fun in the rain with cheeky sarcasm, before he went back to bed.

"Are the rest of the team down already?" Rose asked Lily.

"I think Kibwe and Jyn are. I know Phil and Justin were still getting dressed. No idea about Ben." Lilly explained quickly. She glanced at Rose, "I know I shouldn't ask, but I'm going to anyway because your my cousin and I care about you, but I also care about winning the upcoming match. I want us to win the quidditch cup mostly so- I mean I want to win because I want gryffindor to win- with the added bonus that I can rub in James's face and say that we're great without him. Not that he wasn't a good captain, he really was and Gryffindor almost always won, don't tell him I said that. I guess that's the good thing about having Albus in Slytherin, I can rub a win in both of their faces. Get some extra material to insult them-" she paused, "I'm waffling about something else entirely now, anyway, how are things with Ben now that you've broken up?"

Rose's nostrils flared. "Yeah you really shouldn't've asked." she forced herself to take a breath, not letting her temper win this time. "I'm not gonna lie, this might be awkward. Last time we spoke he called me a soulless robot."

"The bastard!" Lily was outraged.

"But as long as we both act civil and no one else talks about it, I think I can manage the awkwardness." Rose said stiffly, she stopped walking for a moment, Lily stopped with her, "I know doesn't make sense, I know that, but I feel if I can get through this practise and prove to myself that I can be civil with my ex, then the rest of the quidditch season will be fine."

"It kind of makes sense." Lily shrugged as they started walking down again.

Breakfast was mostly eaten in silence after they greeted Jyn and Kibwe, then Phil and Justin when they arrived not long after. Ben was nowhere to be seen until they reached the pitch, on their way out of the hall the team passed Scorpius who didn't give them a second glance, and Albus who ruffled his little sister's hair.

Ben was already flying around the pitch waiting for them.

"Come one slow pokes!" he shouted with a charming grin down at his team.

Once they grabbed their brooms Ben meet them on the ground and gave them the obligatory run through of what they were going to do to prepare for the game against Slytherin in two weeks. He only took a fleeting look at Rose, both their expressions blank, both wanting to focus on the upcoming game. Lily listened to him with a protective glint in her eye that dared anyone to say anything to Rose. Rose sighed with relief when they took off into the air and she could centralise her thoughts on one thing, keeping the quaffle away from the hoops. She weaved, rolled and did loop-the-loop with such precision that she was wide awake long before the practise was half way through and her mind was far from any resentment she might have had for her captain. Ben circled around above them, he was pleased with all of their performances and had encouraging words for them all. Even his ex.

Practise was finally over, and as was the rain. Jyn commented that the sky was mocking them and was waiting just until they finished to cheer up, she theorised that perhaps someone from Slytherin was just in a bad mood, which made the team laugh as they made their way to the changing rooms together.

"Rose," Ben called out after they had changed. "Can I have a word before we go to class?"

Rose took a deep breath, she looked at lily who gave her a reassuring smile. She walked with Ben closer to the castle in silence, deciding that he could start the conversation.

"I just," he started with uncertainty, the confidence he had as a captain on the quidditch pitch was shaking. "I just wanted to say sorry, for our last conversation. Is there any ways you could forgive me?" he didn't look her in the eye, he stared at his shoes. "We decided to be friends and I kind of made that go to shit." he shrugged.

Rose managed a sort of half smile. "You should stop apologising, it was my fault we broke up." Ben looked up and was about to say something but Rose kept on talking to silence him. "That's past us now. You're my quidditch captain, and a good one at that." she stuck out her had. "If you look me in the eye, will you give a friend a handshake?"

Ben smiled too, looked her dead in the eye with a gaze of respect and shook her hand.

"Good." Rose nodded. "I'm not going to lie, this is awkward." She kept a small smile.

"Yep." Ben agreed. "It's going to be awkward for a while isn't it?"

"It's ok, this is our last year." Rose nodded again and started her walk back to the castle. Most of the others students had finished or were about to finish their breakfast so that they could get to class. And Rose felt like walking in silence for a bit so she didn't wait for Lily to catch up.

She made her way from the changing rooms via the training grounds to an archway entrance into the castle. She heard the familiar giggle and husky voice of Robin Stirling, Rose could never understand why some of the guys liked it so much. She braced herself for the inevitable, to see Scorpius and Robin acting like a nauseating couple. However, to her surprise, Rose found the corridor empty and wondered what on earth she had thought she had heard. Then the giggle came again. Rose peaked over the curved glasses windows that lined the stone corridor, and sure enough she spotted Robin below. It was unmistakably her. But the guy she that her giggles were for, the guy she was snogging against the wall, was not her boyfriend and Rose's enemy. Scorpius was nowhere in sight. The guy Rose did not recognise from the back had dark hair and was out of uniform, only wearing jeans and a red hoodie.

Rose muffled a gasp, so not to alarm them to her presence. A hot flash of anger coursed through her. HOW DARE SHE CHEAT ON MALFOY! Rose's thoughts raced through her mind. Revenge. Revenge for Scorpius, that was what her mind turned to. She peaked over the window again and calculated what she could throw at them. The years she spent at home before going to Hogwarts, Rose had practically used every Weasley's Wizard Wheezes product she could get her hands on. Her uncle George had let his children, nieces and nephews try them out, much to his sibling's dismay. Rose had been the best, not including her uncle George, her innocent face had fooled her aunts and uncles many times. Eventually she found the only thing that could tame her ruthlessness, a good book to lose herself in. James and Lorcan soon found themselves being the most frequent pranksters of the family, still they went to Rose for her opinion every now and then. But those years had left Rose with a habit she never got out of. Everywhere she went, Rose carried a small supply of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes in her pockets. She stuffed her hand into the pockets of her robes and dug around for something. She shuffled into a shadow and pressed her back flat against the cold wall.

The head girl could not afford to be caught.

"I can't." Rose muttered to herself. She looked down at her head girl badge, it practically screamed at her. Rose took a deep breath, it was clear she couldn't do anything to get revenge on Robin. 'Why do I even want revenge?' she asked herself. It was a fair question, Robin had not actually done anything to Rose, or her family or anyone she considered a friend. She sighed to herself. "I need to control this temper." she whispered.

The echoing footsteps of her teammates returning to the castle made Rose move, she decided that she needed to think before she acted, something she wished she did more often. Rose was unwillingly reminded of the night she scared Scorpius just because she was angry at someone else and took it out on him. The guilt still tugged at her.

The rest of the students had finished their breakfast and Rose rushed to her first class, she had her magical creatures class with a mixed group of students from all houses. And though it was her favourite class, she was distracted. The fact that Scorpius was there and noticed that something was wrong with Rose, didn't help her concentration at all.

It wasn't until break after a few classes, that Rose was able to meet up with Lunette and Albus in the courtyard.

"What's the matter Rose, you look like you've had a shock. Has Peeves been up to something again?" Lunette peered at her friend with concern, Scorpius had warned them that she had been acting odd but now they could see it for themselves.

"Peeves is always up to something, but no I didn't see him." Rose unknit her brows and spoke clearly, "I just saw Robin Stirling making out with someone that wasn't Malfoy."

"Are you sure it was her?" Albus asked skeptically.

"Oh yeah," Rose nodded, "even if I hadn't seen her, I know her annoying voice anywhere."

"And you're sure it wasn't Scorius?" Lunette was apprehensive to jump to conclusions.

"Yep, unless he suddenly got a decent haircut, dyed it brown and shrunk half a foot." Rose rolled her eyes, she didn't expect to not be taken seriously by her best friends.

"Poor Scorp." Albus sighed. "Crap, he's meant to be smart and intuitive. He's the sort of person you would expect to know when he's being cheated on. People will laugh at him if a genius like Scorp didn't know that Robin is cheating."

"Al! How can you say that?!" Lunette frowned at his train of thought.

"Lunette, I'm only saying what other people will think." he justified himself "I mean, when Dan cheated on Rose, one or two people wanted to laugh but everyone's too scared of her to do it. Besides, not many people even found out about it." Albus turned to Rose, "Rose, you won't use this against Scorp will you?"

"What? Why would I?" Rose paused for a moment. "It never occured to me that I could humiliate Malfoy until you said that."

"Rose please-" Albus began to plead and was interrupted.

"I'm a big girl Al," Rose put on a sly smile, "I can decided what I do and don't do with certain information…"

"You could just tell Scorpius." Albus said flatly.

Rose dropped her sarcastic smile. "No way, I can't do that." she faced them both, "First of all, it's me so he won't believe me. And secondly, it'll sound like I'm making it up to criticise his choice in girlfriends, and that I'm just doing it to get back at him for criticising every boyfriend I've ever had."

"To be fair, Rose, your taste in boyfriends isn't exactly great." said Lunette.

"Well neither is Malfoy's taste in girlfriends." Rose raised her eyebrows.

"Wait, Rose I'm confused." Albus concentrated, "I don't understand what you're going to do now. If you don't do something, as Scorpius's friends, who now know what's going on, we have to tell him. I can't just stand aside while my best friend gets cheated on."

Rose shrugged and stood up, "It's fine, I'll figure something out." it was almost time to get back to class.

"I'll give you until tomorrow." Albus said seriously.

"What?" Rose spun and stared at him.

"I'm serious Rose," Albus stared back. "Scorp is like a second brother to me. I'm closer to him than I am to James. If you don't do anything about it by tomorrow, I'm telling him."

"Fine." Rose huffed. "See you later." she went to her history of magic class, with Ravenlaws. She sat beside Katie Webb and glared at the back of Robin's head.

Rose made up her mind to find Scorpius at lunch at talk to him about Robin, but she spotted the couple sitting together and he seemed calm. Not uncomfortable or irritated. And that threw Rose off of her plan.

"Katie, what do you do if you know that someone is cheating on their partner and you don't want to tell the partner because they won't believe you?" Rose whispered to her friend in the library during lunch.

Katie put down her book and watched Rose closely for a moment. "This isn't about Albus and Lunette is it? Because even I wouldn't believe that and I'm pretty good at telling when people are lying." Katie whispered back.

"Of course not!" Rose forgot to whisper and caught a glare from Madam Pince. "Sorry." Whispered across the room which only turned Madam Pince's glare into a full on death look.

Rose and Katie propped up a book and sunk behind it to whisper once more.

"Albus and Lunette are fine, it's just someone else who won't believe me. So I have to deal with this in a tactful way..." Rose ran out of words, she didn't want to admit it was Scorpius she was referring to.

Katie raised her eyebrows, she knew exactly who Rose was talking about. "Well, then, I guess you could talk to the one who's doing the cheating."

"And say what?" Rose said frantically just above a whisper.

Katie shrugged, "It depends if you want them the break up or just stop cheating. You have to decide what will hurt less for the person you're protecting."

"I'm not protecting anyone." Rose protested, "and I don't care if they get hurt."

"Then why get involved at all?" Katie fought hard to keep a smile off of her face. Rose was definitely lying about wanting to keep Scorpius from any harm. She had noticed it over years of knowing them both, they would insult and hex each other, but never to the point which would cause and pain, physical or emotional. Katie could also see that Rose was struggling, so she decided to nudge her into the better choice. "Of course, if you don't think there's much affection between the two, perhaps breaking up would be better for both parties. The one being unfaithful would be free to pursue someone else. While the other would simply be free of a relationship where the prospect of getting hurt had not occurred to them."

The idea made sense to Rose, she nodded in agreement. She was relieved to have run into Katie, and she was grateful to have had the fortune of becoming friends with her. If Rose had paused in her pursuit of dealing with Robin she would have realised that Katie did not need much context to know that they were talking about Scorpius.

At that moment only one thing could remain on Rose's mind. She had to confront Robin and she had to make sure that it never got out that she cheated on Scorpius. Many students would take any situation just so they could laugh in his face and make him the object of scorn and ridicule.

Scorpius managed to shake off Robin and spent the rest of his lunch with Albus and Lunette. He was surprised to find himself not completely annoyed with her after just spending 10 minutes with her. Scorpius didn't entertain the idea for more than a second, that he might actually start to like Robin if he gave her a chance. He was afraid that no one would ever measure up to what he felt for Rose. And he couldn't even tell her.

After Scorpius's Muggle Studies class with Albus, he made his way back to the shared common room and waited for Rose so that they could start their rounds of the corridors and check on the prefect progress. Rose was prompt from her revision session in the library, Scorpius expected the usual eye roll she gave him when she found him waiting for her, but instead she gave only a glance of what could only be a mixture of uncertainty and pity. They left together and did the rounds in almost silence as usual. It was overall uneventful until Rose spotted Robin.

Robin blew a kiss to Scorpius from across the hall, he nodded in return, something which Robin seemed to find hilarious and let an echoing giggle. Scorpius wished to move on quickly to the next floor, when he noticed Rose had paused. Her nostrils flared as she scowled at Robin walking gleefully away. Scorpius schooled his face to neutral and hid a laugh before Rose could spot him. A tad flustered, she followed him to the next corridor.

The next morning Scorpius had quidditch practise, he raced down to the common room to find his gloves and was instead distracted by Rose reading her book on the sfa, still in her pajamas. She was also distracted, not truly reading but seemed to be waiting for him to appear.

"You're up early for someone who despises getting out of bed." Scorpius commented while ducking under his desk to pick one glove that had dropped down there. "Did you sleep well?" he genuinely asked.

Rose mistook his interest as sarcasm, as he knew she would.

"Oh I slept fine," Rose put down her book and shone a fake smile then mumbled "you sarcastic git."

"Good insult, how long will it be until you stop using 'git'." Scorpius begged his face not to sure his amusement in their trading of insults.

"Just as soon as they come out with a different word to describe you, I hear they're working very hard. They thought that 'idiot' might be close but it's just not original enough." Rose's playful smile dripped with sarcasm.

"Idiot? Really? You wound me Weasley." He placed a hand on his heart and acted as if it hurt.

"Sadly not a fatal wound, you're still standing." Rose grinned at herself and returned to her book feeling satisfied that she has won the battle.

Scorpius let out a chuckle by accident, startling into looking up. He stared at her for a moment, realising his slip, then left quickly for quiddtich practise.

Rose dropped her book onto the sofa and ran to the window overlooking the training grounds, she would wait until Scorpius and his teammates went to the pitch, and then she would find Robin. One of the things about Robin that annoyed Rose so much was her boasting that she always did her best revision early in the morning. While Rose was lucky if she could manage to get out of bed without a groan, she was not a morning person in the slightest. There was a time, back in her first year, when she was so eager for her new classes that getting out of bed early was easy.

The second she spotted green quidditch robes, Rose tore herself from the window, shoved on her robes and shot down to the hall. She spotted Albus and Lunette sitting at the Hufflepuff table having the breakfast, so she joined them.

"I'm going to talk to her today." she muttered to them.

"Oh good morning Rose, how lovely it is to greet you." Albus said in a strained and sarcastic manner.

"You know, normal people try to put in a greeting before they start talking." Lunette chimed in.

"None of us are normal so I'll ignore that advise." Rose rolled her eyes. "I'm not staying for long anyway, I just came to tell you that I plan on talking to Robin today."

"And tell her what?" Albus was at a loss.

"I'm going to be direct and tell her to break up with Malfoy." Rose said uncertainly, she still wasn't sure if it was a good idea. And by the looks of her friend's faces, they weren't sure either. "Well what would you guys do?" she pleaded with and exasperated sigh.

"Tell Scorp! Then he can break up with her-" Lunette began.

Albus cut her off, "No, I've been thinking about what Rose said and she's right. Scorp would never believe her."

"Then we should tell him, we're his best friends and we can back her up." Lunette protested.

"And then he'll ask how you know and you'll say that you heard it from me and we'll be back to the original problem, he won't believe me." Rose finished Albus's line of thought.

"If you tell her to stop cheating, she won't take any notice." Albus's face scrunched up as he thought through Rose's plan. "If you tell her to break up with him, she might do it. Tell Robin that if she doesn't break up with Scorp then he will find out and break up with her. She'll feel like she gets the high ground by dumping him rather than being dumped." He looked up and raised his eyebrows. "This might be the only way."

Lunette bit her lip, she could see their point. "I don't want Scorp to get hurt."

"He never wanted to go out with her in the first place." said Albus.

"I've rearranged my revision schedule for today so I have an extra ten minutes to talk to her before I go the the library with Katie." Rose flicked through a notebook she pulled out of her bag.

Albus smacked his forehead with his palm in dismay and rolled his eyes. "Could you be more like Aunt Hermione?" he laughed and Lunette joined in.

Rose huffed and stuffed her notebook bag into her bag, "I've just wasted one of those scheduled minutes with you losers." She stood and gave a curt nod. "I'll see you later." Rose went off in the direction that they had seen Robin leave.

Lunette slipped her arm from around Albus's shoulder so that she could hold his hand. "I don't know why you didn't back me up, everything would be a lot simpler if Rose just told Scorp." she sighed, she wasn't offended but simply didn't understand his motive. "We know very well that Scorp would believe that a bunch of horklumps had evolved to sprout wings and were flying in space, if Rose was the one to tell him."

Albus shrugged. "But how can we tell her that without betraying the truth about how he feels about her?"

"Then he should tell her how he feels!" Lunette was getting a little fed up of their lack of understanding and honesty.

"They're not like us Lunette, they need time for things to heal."

Lunette leaned closer to Albus and kissed him deeply, "I love that you know your friends so well."

Rose caught up with Robin at the main staircase and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Stirling I need a word with you," she said in an unintentionally menacing manner. And she glared at the friends surrounding her. "Alone." she added.

Robin was immediately uncomfortable, but she shrugged it off with a fake laugh and made an excuse to her friends, "Don't mind me, just need to have a little pow-wow with our esteemed head girl." Then she followed Rose, to where she did not know.

Rose wasn't even sure where she was leading Robin, eventually she found her feet leading her instead. Towards the girls bathroom on the second floor. Robin recoiled when she noticed Rose reach for the door handle.

"No way, ew, Moaning Myrtle haunts in there!" Robin gave an involuntary shiver, "She creeps me out _and_ annoys the hell out of me."

Rose sighed impatiently "She's not _that_ bad. And you can stand to be around her for a few minutes." She held the door open for Robin. "Now get in."

Myrtle squealed and shot up from one of the stalls. "What are _you_ doing here?" She floated closer to the girls. Myrtle hissed at Robin and giggled with the Ravenclaw jumped back and shivered again. She moved towards Rose with a curious eye, "And you, you're not here to brew another potion like your parents are you?"

"No Myrtle, I'm just here to talk with Sterling. There's no chance of you giving us some privacy is there?" Rose dared to ask hopefully.

Myrtle folded her arms to sulk for a moment, then her eyes lit up, "Hmmm, only if you tell your uncle Harry that I say hello." she let out a high pitch and shrill giggle, "He was an awfully naughty boy!"

Rose couldn't decide if she found Myrtle's description of her uncle repulsive or funny, either way all she did was smile. "Of course I will Myrtle, I'll write to him tonight."

Myrtle was satisfied and squealed once again, she looped backwards and flew into the closest toilet, zooming in the pipes to intrude on another toilet somewhere else in the castle.

"See, she can be reasonable, occasionally." Rose pointed out to Robin. Her tone changed in a snap when she brought up the matter at hand. "I, on the other hand, am less so." Rose nipped into each toilet stand to check that Myrtle was lurking there, then returned to Robin.

"I saw you, I know you've been cheating on Malfoy."

Robin exhaled. "So, why do you care?"

Rose grit her teeth and reminded herself not to be tempted to get her wand out. "I don't care. I really don't care about you and I really don't care about him. But Malfoy happens to be very dear to my best friends, and they don't want to see him get hurt. If I know that your actions will inevitably hurt him, then I will inevitably be blamed for not stopping you sooner." Rose's threatening expression was powerful enough to make Robin take a step back. "Now here's what you're going to do, you are going to break up with Malfoy in an amicable way that lets him know that it's all your fault and that you just don't see a future where you can make him happy. You will tell no one, not even him, that you were cheating. I will not tell anybody. And you will wait at least three weeks before you date another guy. That way we all get what we want. Albus will be satisfied that his friend won't be hurt, Malfoy won't be humiliated in any way. And _you_ won't find boils on your back that spell out 'lying bitch', boils so permanent that no enchantment or potion in the world could ever remove them. And lastly, but most importantly, you will not speak or write about this conversation to anyone, living or dead, painting or photograph. Understand?"

Rose let her words sink in for a moment. Robin's frightened expression stared back at her. "Will you take my suggestion?"

Robin breathed heavily. "More of a threat than a suggestion." she muttered.

Rose shrugged. "Take it how you will."

"Permanent boils, you leave me no choice." Robin mumbled, and raked her hand through her hair. "I really can't date anyone for three weeks?" She asked incredulously.

"Three weeks isn't a lot to ask, especially after what you've done. I don't take cheating on a partner, no matter who they are, lightly. If you wanted to snog someone else then you should have just broken up with Malfoy in the first place."

"Fine." Robin spat bitterly. "You have my word."

"I don't trust your word." Rose laughed cynically.

"Merlin's beard, you're terrifying." Robin gained back some of her sense. "I will do what you say, I don't doubt for a second that you know exactly how to carry through with your threat." Robin sighed. "When I snogged Justin-"

"Do you mean Justin Cole?" Rose's eyes narrowed.

"Yeah-" before Robin could finish her sentence, Rose interrupted.

"Bullshit, Justin was at quidditch practise with me."

Robin stamped her foot like a stroppy child, "Fine, it was Wesley McLaggen, but I only lied because I know he's your ex and I didn't want you to preemptively strike and put those boils on my back. And, 'cause, you know, McLaggen's such a loser."

Rose's nostrils flared. "I never dated McLaggen. I can't stand the guy."

Robin hesitated before she spoke, and even that was directed at the floor rather than looking Rose in the eye. "Do you trust that I'm sufficiently afraid of what you might do, that I'll do exactly what you say." she glanced up and saw Rose give a curt nod. Sighed with relief. "The head girl drags you away to threaten you over a guy she hates, it's probably a first at Hogwarts."

"Don't try and defuse the tension Sterling, I want you to full appreciate the fact that I'm threatening you now rather than attacking you the moment I saw you with McLaggen, like I wanted to."

"Oh," Robin fell back to being intimidated, "lucky me, you had time to plan out your threat." she said with a nervous laugh as she took yet another step back. "You really are terrifying sometimes." Robin noticed Rose relax slightly, her face turning one from a daunting expression to one that just barely tolerated Robin. "You know, I really should've made an effort to be your friend." Robin said honestly, "Everyone respects you unless they've done something that would provoke you, then they're scared of what you could do. A handy thing to have when you reach seventh year. It stops the first years from being annoying little buggers."

"Got to your classes Robin." Rose ended the conversation bluntly. "Don't tell anyone about this. Don't tell anyone you cheated on Malfoy. Break up with Malfoy gently. And don't date anyone for at least three weeks." Rose folded her arms and tapped her foot.

Robin nodded and rushed out of the bathroom.

"Myrtle if you're there you can come out now." Rose called out, her voice echoing around the empty room.

A minute of two later there came a rush of water from one of the toilets and the annoying shrill of Myrtle saying 'weeeee!' as she popped back into her bathroom.

"Is the other one gone now?" Myrtle peered from the bathroom stall.

"Yes," Rose answered. "Thank you Myrtle." She smiled.

"Hmph." Myrtle sulked and drifted towards the window.

But Rose figured that Myrtle didn't mind too much, it must have been a long time since anyone had said anything in the least bit civil to her. Rose said her goodbye and a thanks again, then left to revise in the library with Katie. They had just enough time to finish three chapters of their History of Magic book, before Rose had to run along to her Defense Against the Dark Arts class with the Hufflepuffs. Lunette was grateful to hear what Rose had said to Robin. Lunette was relieved that her friend would come out relatively unhurt. Rose felt the same, although she didn't say so to Lunette, mostly because she didn't know why she felt that way.

That evening Albus was sure to make himself the first person Scorpius saw after Robin broke up with him. Albus waited outside the head common room and asked Rose and Lunette to stay away for twenty minutes. Rose was a bit put off because it might throw off her intense revision schedule, but Lunette promised to help her friend study for potions in exchange.

"Al, hey." Scorpius was surprised to see his friends waiting outside the common room, the pleasure of seeing him outweighed the surprise though and let Albus into the common room. He offered him a peppermint sweet once they sat down.

"I'm good thanks." Albus declined, he took a moment to look at Scorpius properly.

"I'm guessing you heard already and that's why you were waiting." Scorpius sighed, not really sure how to feel about it all. "I know gossip gets around quick at Hogwarts, but it was literally ten minutes ago." Albus just watched him in return so Scorpius found himself continuing to talk. "Lunette has a lot of contacts, if anyone is to know anything about break ups within a few minutes of them happening, it's going to be her. Or Lily, though getting her to stop talking is the more difficult thing-" Scorpius paused and shrugged, not knowing what to say. He wasn't angry or sad. "So Robin broke up with me." he simply said.

Albus leaned forward and hugged Scorpius. "How do you feel about that?" he asked carefully.

"I'm not sure that I particularly care." he shrugged again.

"So, in a way, when you look at it, I mean, it's not so bad?" Albus felt awkward because he couldn't read how Scorpius actually felt.

"No, I don't know why I dated her in the first place," That was a lie, he did know why but wasn't sure if he wanted Albus to know. "I also don't know why she broke up with me. I've decided that I don't care enough about her to find out."

"That's the spirit!" Albus said sarcastically with a grin and laughed with him. He was pleased to see Scorpius was smiling and that perhaps he wasn't lying, and Robin didn't matter to him.

Rose and Lunette burst through the door at that point. Rose shot an apologetic and guilty look to ALbus, before heading straight to her room.

"Sorry." Lunette sat beside Albus, "Madam Pince got really annoyed with Kibwe and Louis, they were trying a prank in the library but it didn't work and she caught them and then through everyone out." she explained.

Scorpius was still smiling and laughed again at the idea of the young boys trying to fill the shoes of James and Lorcan.

Albus smiled as well, it soon turned into a puzzled expression when he thought on what Scorpius had said before Rose and Lunette interrupted. "Wait, you really don't know why Robin broke up with you? She didn't say anything, no one said anything?"

Intrigued, Lunette leaned forward. None of them could see but Rose was lurking at the top of her stairs behind the Gryffindor tapestry, with an extendable ear poking out so she could hear the conversation. She was rather pleased with herself and thought she would make a rather good detective or spy in a novel.

"Nope, nothing. She just took me aside and said that it probably won't work out and we should break up."

Satisfied, Rose wound up the device and returned to her room, remembering that she had to write to her uncle with a message from Myrtle. The image of how awkward Harry would be made her chuckle to herself.

Albus peered over to the Gryffindor tapestry and leaned in closer to Scorpius. "So, how are things trying to be nice to Rose?"

"Not great, this morning we traded insults before quidditch practise, I think I found that funnier than she did." Scorpius sighed and flopped lazily into cushions. "I don't want to be mean anymore, I wish she understood that when I insult her, I'm not really insulting her, it's just the only way she'll talk to me."

The end of the month saw the quidditch season crammed into one week and a half. The Slytherin vs Hufflepuff match was over and Hufflepuff beat them by just a few points, the Slytherin chasers kept on scoring and Scorpius performed brilliantly, but the Lunette caught the snitch even though the Slytherin seeker was just inches away from catching it themselves. Albus pretended to sulk but Lunette simply laughed in his face, she knew that they won fair and square. Next it was Gryffindor's turn to challenge the Ravenclaw. The Ravenclaws were thrashed, they only scored twice because Rose wouldn't let the quaffle past her and then they lost the snitch to Ben Rome. And as always, nobody lasted long when Lily had free reign with a bat and a bludger. Albus was able to truthfully say that he thanked any god or gods that were out there, because he didn't have to go up against his little sister flying around with the potential to injure him.

Then it came. The last match of their last year. Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff. Lunette and Rose spent to couple of days leading up to the match pretending to throw intense threats to each other, and then laughing at whoever looked more serious.

Other than that, they most spent the majority of their time with their teammates. Scorpius rarely saw Rose in their shared common room and Albus himself without Lunette by his side as she ate and socialised with the Hufflepuff team. So Albus and Scorpius decided to hang out in the Slytherin common room. It was nice and nostalgic for them both to be in the same place where their friendship was strengthened. Both feeling like awkward outsiders who had found their true brother.

"So you're alright hanging out with your old friend the evil Malfoy?" Scorpius asked Albus one day when they managed to reserve the sofa nearest to the fire. "You're not jealous of Lunette having other friends?"

"Of course I love hanging out with you." Albus punched him in the arm and laughed, "And Lunette and I are allowed to have friends and interests and a life outside of each other, it's healthy that way. As long as we trust each other and don't get jealous." Albus sat and thought for a moment about his relationship, "It's not like we don't share interest though, and we share our best friends. There would only be an issue, I think, if we didn't enjoy spending time together and make time for each other." Albus found himself subconsciously smiling gleefully just thinking about her. "I love you like a brother Scorp, and Rose is my oldest friend and favourite cousin. But there are days when I only want to spend time with Lunette, even if we end up arguing."

"There is no way you guys argue." Scorpius smirked.

"We do, they don't last long though, we actually listen to each other and try to work stuff out. Unlike you and Rose. We compromise." Albus shrugged, he didn't mind being honest with his best friend. "And we don't hold a grudge like you two either, we talk things out instead of yelling and just walking away."

"I still don't believe you guys have honestly argued since that time you broke up."

"I don't tell you everything Scorp," Albus shrugged again, he looked at him closely to make sure that he didn't take it the wrong way. "And that's not a bad thing. Every detail of my relationship with Lunette isn't public. We argue sometimes and we have intimate moments that we don't tell you and Rose about."

Scorpius pretended to cringe. "Ew, mate, you're talking about intimate moments with one of my best friends." He laughed and Albus joined in.

"I'm serious though, neither of us are perfect so we don't expect perfection, and then we have stuff to talk and work through. Our relationship isn't prefect either, but it's pretty damn good. If you're idea of a perfect relationship includes never arguing, that's not healthy."

Scorpius managed to put on a smile and a fake chuckle even though his words were spoken with sadness and a hint of bitterness. "That's good, because the person I want to be in a relationship with only ever communicates with me in an argument."

Scorpius's eyes were sad, so Albus saw straight through the fake smile. He reached forward and patted Scorpius on the head.

"If it helps, both me and Lunette agree that it should work out for you guys one day." he smiled sympathetically, "But first you both need to learn not to bottle up emotions, or to yell instead of listening." he stood to bring a chess board closer so they could play. Thinking of another thing to add, Albus laughed while he added "And both desperately need to get used to apologising."

The match finally arrived. The stands were full and the players were on the pitch eyeing each other.

They took off.

The first half of the game was tense, the Hufflepuff team rarely surrendered the quaffle, the Gryffindor chasers could not interceded it. However, the Hufflepuff chasers were barely able to get the quaffle past Rose, One of the Hufflepuff beaters strayed over the boundaries in pursuit of a buldger, professor Stockett blew the whistle and Jyn was given the quaffle. That's when Gryffindor were able to play to their strengths. They scored multiple times and Lily and Phil were able to strike many of the Hufflepuff chasers who tried to intercept the quaffle. Rose only just escaped being hit by a bludger sent by Hufflepuff, by hanging upside down on her broomstick with the sloth grip. This earned her an impressed cheer from the crowd. The score was 150 to 20, Gryffindor in the lead, when professor Stockett called for a penalty to be awarded to Hufflepuff when Justin entered the scoring area, not having seen his fellow chaser Kibwe was already there. The penalty was scored, Rose was unable to move to stop it. The score was 150 to 30, Gryffindor still in the lead. From then Kibwe and Jyn scored one goal each, 170 to 30. And snitch was spotted, Lunette spotted it just second before Ben. Lily batted a bludger at a Hufflepuff chaser while Phil sent the other towards Lunette, it hit her arm and Ben was able to gain some advantage, diving towards the snitch. In a desperate attempt to get some leverage, Kibwe, Jyn and Justin made valiant attempts to score again. But Phil was too busy trying to hit Lunette with the bludger and Lily was left on her own defending the Gryffindor chasers from the bludger that the Hufflepuff Beaters kept smacking at them. Ben and Lunette were neck and neck when the snitch suddenly shot upwards, Lunette was quick enough to pull up and reach for it, but Ben's timing was off by a fraction. Which might not have mattered, if Lunette hadn't just caught the snitch. Winning the game for Hufflepuff.

The match ended 170 to 180. With Hufflepuff winning the quidditch cup.

The amazing thing that Rose loved so much about Hogwarts, which was especially true when playing against Hufflepuff, was that victories were often fair and well earned. There was a party down in the Hufflepuff common room, Lunette and a few other of her teammates left for a moment carrying two heavy bags to find Rose who had only just finished her dinner, she was one of the last left at the Gryffindor table along with Lily. The two took Lunette and her friends up to the Gryffindor common room as requested but waited in the corridor to see what they wanted before letting them in. They had no idea what was in the bags and Lunette wasn't telling.

Lunette grinned. "Get the rest of your team and then we'll explain."

The Gryffindor common room was packed, music played loudly and butterbeer was passed around with sweets from Hogsmeade, in an almost party-like style. The rest of the team gathered in the corridor but Rose had to be the one to go and find Ben.

She knocked on his dormitory door.

"You're not naked are you?" she said cheekily through the door.

"No." he grumbled in reply.

Rose burst through the door and smiled. "Look, some of the Hufflepuff team are outside the common room and they want to talk."

Ben sighed, he wasn't wholly unhappy but was disappointed at the loss in the last match of his last year. "If they're here to rub their victory in our face, then I don't want to hear it."

"Come on, they're Hufflepuffs not Slytherins." she said half-joking. "Look, it's no one's fault we lost. We put up a hell of a fight, and someone had to lose. If they had unfairly won, the Hufflepuff team would be the first to ask for a rematch. Though I imagine that would simply be to prove that they don't need to cheat to beat us." She watched Ben's expression mis in a hint of irritation to the disappointment. "Sorry, that didn't really help did it?"

"Kind of," he replied with a shrug. "Alright, I'll come down."

"Good, they want to give us something but I don't know what." Rose held the door open for him. "And Ben, I know that look."

Ben paused and raised his eyebrows.

Rose gave a reassuring smile. "You didn't get the snitch, but the only person blaming you for our loss is yourself. If you'll take a suggestion from you teammate, who just happens to be your ex but is trying really hard to be your friend again, come and have some fun with the rest of the house downstairs and stop being so harsh."

Ben managed a smile. "We really got so close to winning didn't we?"

"So close, just ten points off, I think that's not a harsh loss."

They went down together and found Lunette still buzzing with excitement and a smug expression upon her face.

"Ok, so we won and we couldn't be happier," Lunette began, and the entire Gryffindor team groaned in unison, "hey, don't think we don't appreciate a fair fight." she handed over the two bags and Lily and Jyn peered inside. "We're having a celebration in our common room and you guys should celebrate too, so here are some snacks and stuff to get you started." she grinned and gave Rose a hug from the side. Then left with her teammates.

They found pumpkin pasties, more sweets than could be counted, multiple flasks of butterbeer and a few decorations in the Gryffindor colours.

Ben burst out laughing, "Rose, your friend could not be a nicer person if she tried. What the hell has your cousin done to deserve her?"

"No one deserves Lunette, she's too brilliant." Rose laughed too.

"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I'M BRILLIANT." they heard her shout echo through the corridor. It startled them not having realised that they could still hear them.

Meanwhile Albus and Scorpius were strolling around talking with the intention of heading back to the Slytherin common room soon.

"I'm not sure what mood Rose is going to be in tonight, or even for the next week." Albus sighed thinking about the game. "I mean, she was brilliant but her team lost her last game at Hogwarts."

Scorpius chuckled. "If I'm lucky she might be in a mood to ignore me. I have a pattern of being unlucky when it comes to your cousin so she'll probably be in the mood to take it out by glaring at me."

"At least you'll come out better than you did last year." Albus nodded, remembering the scary image of Scorpius injured on the pitch.

"No more going to the hospital wing for me thank you very much. I'm still not 100% sure what actually happened to me, I just know that it hurt like hell." Scorpius shivered, not wishing to think too much about the pain he had felt when his broom threw him off and he landed on the ground far below and was somehow covered in boils that burned his skin, then he passed out and woke up in the hospital wing. There were still a few circular scars on his chest and her doubted that they would ever fade even though the nurse promised they would disappear within a few weeks of the incident.

"I guess there was one good thing that came out of that whole thing."

Scorpius laughed incredulously, "What good could possible have come from that?"

"Rose was so scared that you were seriously injured that she snuck in to see you in the middle of the night and held your hand while you cried in pain." Albus smirked and raised his eyebrows.

Scorpius stopped, he was taken aback. Albus noticed he had stopped and turned around to see what the problem was, Scorpius was staring at him with surprise and his mouth hanging open a bit.

"Sh-she comforted me all night?" Scorpius closed his eyes and tried to remember Rose's worried face. "I thought that was a dream." he mumbled.

"No, Rose was definitely there, I saw her myself but she doesn't know that."

"She cared that I was hurt?" Scorpius was still staring.

"She was frightened you might not recover. Not frightened, terrified. Like when you got in a fight with Parkinson and was left in the snow for a few hours. Blind panic takes over Rose and she stops trying to hate you so much."

There conversation was cut short by a fourth year that barged into them.

Lunette and her teammates ran into Scorpius after they had left the Gryffindor team with their goodies. Lunette grinned, ran to her friend and attacked him with a hug.

"Woah!" Scorpius was startled and stumbled back a bit before returning the hug.

Lunette let go of him and grabbed onto his shoulders, while jumping with singed with excitement. "We won! We won! My last quidditch match at Hogwarts and we won!" she stopped jumping for a moment and hugged him again. "Can you believe it?" she practically shouted in his ear. "I can't believe it!"

Scorpius a bit overwhelmed by her hyperactiveness and stepped back from her again. Her face was glowing and he couldn't help but laugh. "You were brilliant Lune."

Lunette paused for a moment and frowned, no one had ever given her a nickname before, except for Albus who tended to call her sweetie. "Lune?" her eyebrows shot up, she laughed and hugged Scorpius again. "Brilliant! I'm a lune! You and Rose have to call me that from now on, I won't answer to anything else." She let go of Scorpius and looked around him, "I assumed Albus would have appeared by now." her expression was still glowing with happiness but she looked disappointed not so see him joined to the hip with Scorpius.

"Some fourth year Slytherin tied his shoelaces together, I asked a prefect to chase after the kid. They were headed this way, and Al is sorting his shoes."

Scorpius peered behind Lunette just as a sixth year Ravenclaw prefect appeared from around the corner, her hand firmly on the shoulder of the culprit.

"Was it Pearson?" The Ravenclaw called out to Scorpius as she came towards him. Her thick Irish accent echoed through the walls.

"Yeah," Scorpius rolled his eyes and glared at Pearson. "20 points from Slytherin, no magic outside of class and especially no using that magic to bully others."

Pearson scoffed. "This is your own house Malfoy, I thought you of all people might actually stick up for your own house if you ever want to feel like you actually have a family. And it was just Potter anyway, who even cares about him?"

"I care, that's who." Scorpius said bluntly.

"And I bloody well care about him too!" Lunette stormed forward and confronted the fourth year. "And if you're so desperate to have a family at Hogwarts, then don't be mean to your fellow students! Also, just for your information, Scorpius is _my_ family as far as I'm concerned." she gave a dertemined nod to Scorpius.

"He's not ever in your house." Pearson looked disgusted.

"So?" Lunette snapped back.

Pearson's expression took on one that looked almost ashamed and he stared at the ground. Intenly disliking the feeling, he looked up and scowled at Scorpius. "Well as far as magic outside of class, you used to do it all the time, before you became head boy!"

Scorpius shrugged. "Yeah, and I got in trouble for that. And rightly so because it's against the rules. But I learnt my lesson and now I'm head boy, so why don't you learn your lesson and don't break the rules." he turned the smile and nod at the Ravenclaw prefect. "Thank's Slane, you did brilliantly," He sized her up, not completely sure he remembered her, but there was some connection to someone and he couldn't quite remember... "What's your first name again?"

"Bridie." she smiled. "Sounds familiar doesn't it? I doubt you'll remember, but Gregg Gully, the old Slytherin quidditch captain, he's my step brother. His friends used to say that he talked about me all the time. I kept my dad's name, but Gregg now goes by Slane-Gully, he finally decided took both our dad's names." her cheeks turned slightly pink after sharing more than she probably should have. "Sorry, I like talking about my step brother. He accepted me a lot quicker than he accepted my dad. It was a big moment in our family."

Lunette grinned, "Don't worry I over share all the time." she leaned over and patted Scorpius on the head. "Makes this one uncomfortable, and that's the only reason I'm here."

Scorpius laughed. "To make me uncomfortable?"

"No, to make you stop taking yourself so seriously." Albus's voiced came from behind them.

Lunette ran to him embraced him, only pulling away from a moment so she could kiss him and then snuggled back into his arms.

"You won your last quidditch match!" Albus beamed proudly. "How awesome do you feel right now?"

"Over the moon!"

Bridie smiled at the couple then turned to Scorpius, "I'll make sure Pearson goes back to his common room."

"Thanks." Scorpius. He looked back at his friends. "And I'm going to give those guys some space." he thought back to what Albus had said about Rose. "Hey, you didn't happen to see the head girl while you were walking around?"

"No, but I'd wager she's still at the Gryffindor tower with her teammates. I think they had half arranged a party for when they won but that fell through so they're trying to celebrate a good quidditch season and saying goodby to the seventh year teammates."

"How do you know so much?"

"I talk a lot so people think they can talk a lot to me too." Bridie shrugged. "I find people like to talk about themselves often, so I just go from there."

"Bridie Slane you might just be some kind of genious."

 **MAY**

Scorpius, Albus and Lunette were sitting together at the Slytherin table at breakfast when the post arrived. Hundreds of owls dropped letters to their owners, some stopped for some toast and a some affection while others simply flew straight back to the owery. Lunette received a letter from her dad, another apologetic one as he had not found a better flat than the one he was currently living in.

"It has two bedrooms," Lunette sighed after she read the letter to Albus and Scorpius, "I think it's fine but he _still_ won't listen." her frustration masked her sadness over the way her father felt, his letters did not explicitly say it, but the man was broken about his family splitting up.

Albus sensed this and wrapped his arm around her waist then kissed her cheek, "I think he's just a bit lost right now Lunette." he spoke with such warmth and understanding, Lunette rested her head on his shoulder. "And you were right the other day when you said that he blames himself, that can't be easy on him. Mr Tinker might be thinking solely of you, with your mother move away maybe he thinks you're blaming him." Albus shrugged.

"Well I don't blame him, I blame mum. She cheated on him multiple times and never-" she sighed to herself again. "I need to write back to him. I'll be in the common room." she slowly stood.

"Do you want me to come with you? Or would you rather be alone?" Albus held her hand for a moment.

"Alone." Lunette managed a half smile and kissed Albus quickly. "I'll come and find you once I'm done, I might need a thousand hugs and a shoulder to cry on."

"I have some chocolate frogs somewhere, if you want them later." Scorpius piped up.

"Yes, I need all the chocolate." Lunette's eyes widened and she nodded seriously, "I'll meet you both at Scorp's common room then." she squeezed Albus's hand before letting go and heading to the Hufflepuff common room.

Albus returned to his breakfast, a concerned look on his face. Scorpius decided a distraction might help and it came from the Gryffindor table.

Rose was sitting next to a very timid Katie, and opposite were Lily, Hugo and Phil and Mel. They were near strangers to Katie and she would have run to the library to hide by herself if Rose had not been beside her. Katie had decided that, since Rose took the time to sit with her in the library, then the least Katie could do in return was sit with her at breakfast. No matter how awkward. She had found Hugo very kind and welcoming, she liked him a lot and didn't understand why Rose complained about her brother. Lily she found nice and funny, but also intimidating. Her loudness, her chattiness, her big personality and her pretty face were all a lot to handle if you weren't used to her. Katie was definitely not used to her. Katie was uncertain of Phil and Mel, they seemed to only hang around Rose out of habit, they were more wrapped up in their own conversation. And while both girls liked Rose, disliked Lily (which was mutually returned), and were indifferent to Hugo, they only just managed to be polite to Katie who they known since first year but never spoken a word to.

Rose received a letter from Pocket when she arrived with all the other owls. She had a three letters, two from her parents, one for her and one for Hugo. Hugo had decided that he didn't want an owl so he depended on Pocket every now and then. Instead, Hugo had been in the process, for three years, of persuading his parents to get a dog. Rose was confused by the third letter. It was in a purple envelope, and the lettering was a metallic and silvery blue. She opened to envelope to find it written on normal parchment paper, but singed at the edges as if a fire had been put out just a few seconds before it was too late. The writing on the letter was also in blue.

Rose gasped as she read on, such an audible thing that it startled Lily and Katie, and caught the attention of Albus and Scorpius. Hugo had just stood to leave when it stopped him in his tracks. An excited grin stretched across her face. When she looked up from the letter, Albus had appeared at their table, Scorpius a few steps behind him.

When she breathed again, Rose spoke barely believing her words. "Uncle Charlie sent the letter, if I pass all my NEWTs and manage an O in my Magical Creatures class, then I can assist him in Romania! For a whole year! And then longer if I want!" Rose leapt from her seat and hugged Hugo.

Hugo laughed with his sister and hugged her back.

"This is brilliant Rosie!" he said proudly, "My sister working with dragons! Merlin I envy you."

Rose let go of him and squealed excitedly. "I've been waiting for this news for so long!" she jumped up and down.

"I know, I've had to suffer with you stressing." Hugo rolled his eyes but was still smiling.

Rose turned to Albus and hugged him too. "Al! I finally know what I'm doing after we finish here!" she looked behind him at Scorpius, not even the sight of him could turn her glee into a frown. "Where's Lune?" she asked Albus.

"She went off to reply to her dad." Albus answered. "She'll go to your common room in a bit."

"I need to write to mum and dad!" Rose squealed again and ran off to her common room.

"At this point, I think it's a safe to conclude that writing to parents is more entertaining than talking to either of us." Scorpius smirked sarcastically to Albus. Then patted him on the shoulder and guided him out of the hall. "Come on, we told Lune we'd meet her. And you need to support your cousin and her exciting news."

"Wouldn't you rather support Rose?" Albus laughed at him. "You never know, she might be so deliriously happy, that she won't reject you."

Scorpius sighed, "Don't get my hopes up, that's just cruel."

They walked slowly to the shared common room, Rose passed them in the corridor on her way to the Owlery with letters to her parents and Charlie, and a bag of snacks for Pocket. Albus and Scorpius opted for flicking through their muggle studies textbooks while they waited. By the time Lunette arrived, Rose was with her.

"Look who I found." Rose said to Albus when they entered, she tried to smile but felt bad for Lunette.

Lunette rolled her eyes at their pity and squared her shoulders. "Nope, there is no way my bad mood about my dumb parents is getting in the way of Rose's amazing news. We're going to Three Broomsticks."

Rose and Albus put their jumpers from Mrs Weasley back on while Scorpius picked up his muggle studies book and put it on his desk. When he pulled his chair out to sit down, Lunette cleared her throat to get his attention.

" _All_ of us are going Scorp." She raised her eyebrows, daring someone to argue. No one did, Lunette was in a rare bad mood and arguing was pointless, especially as her closest friends they understood that her family were falling apart and she needed to be reminded that they were her family and would suffer any inconvenience or awkwardness to make her smile.

Scorpius stood from his desk and grabbed his shoes, Rose threw a jacket at him that had been left on the sofa. Lunette was already out the door, Albus witnessed a curt nod between his best friends. Their truce was on.

"You know, we're not their only mutual friends." Albus whispered to Lunette. "We could as Katie Webb to come along, then they'll have three people forcing them to behave."

Lunette smiled at the idea, "Ok, but just as long as she wants to, I don't want to pressure her to hang around with us. I've tried being friendly to Katie, but I think that just makes her not trust me." she frowned, remembering the few times she had attempted to start a conversation with the so-called 'friendless Ravenclaw.'

"No wonder she gets along so well with those two." Albus checkled. "I'll go to the library and I'll meet you in Hogsmeade." He kissed her cheek and left quickly.

It was a surprise for Rose and Scorpius to see Katie arrive with Albus, they spoke to their friends and never each other. Scorpius watched her out of the corner of his eye whenever there was a lull in the conversation. He couldn't begin to imagine how lost he would feel once she was off to Romania. Scorpius knew that his current situation with Rose was not ideal, in fact it was way too far from what he wished it could be. He was not delusional enough to not see that Rose still believed he hated her. He also knew his feelings for her would mean that there was an oncoming sadness and loneliness that would follow her leaving. He would get over it, or at least learn to live with a feeling of loss without her. Because that's how it would have to be. Scorpius refused to mope around for an entire year just because Rose wasn't around to trade insults. It was more that Rose wasn't going to be a constant in his life while he built up the courage to tell her how he felt. Convinced that he was too young to know what love was and therefore he didn't think he was in love, Scorpius could tell himself that there was a good side to Rose being gone. He could try to get over her. It was never going to happen anyway, she could never feel the same way. These thoughts raced through his mind while Lunette was discussing her upcoming potions exam with Katie, who wasn't taking the potions NEWT, but knew everything already.

Meanwhile Rose was very excited for her year away, a year to discover what she really wanted to do. But looking around at her friends, she started to think about how much she would miss the comforts of home and the people she loved the most. She wouldn't see them everyday, of course that would be inevitable after they graduated anyway. She would no longer be living just a few corridors and staircases away from her cousins and best friends. Rose thought of the bright side, she wouldn't have to run into Scorpius anymore. But even that idea brought a pang of pain in her heart. She glanced at him, he was pretending not to be looking at her. Rose felt that she didn't have the energy to hate him at that moment. Something which had been increasingly frequent but she never wanted to admit. It was nice, surrounded by their friends and not arguing.

The conversation moved to Albus and Katie saying how glad they were not to have continued magical beasts classes, because by the look of the torn textbooks, it was all getting a little too dangerous for their liking. Rose opened her mouth to chime in but stopped herself, her comment would have been for Scorpius and Scorpius alone. It would mean that they would actually speak and their truce did not called for that. The truce was an agreement of silence in order to assure there were no arguments. Rose's minded drifted back to Romania, it had been a long time since anyone in her family had spent anymore than a few weeks with Charlie and she was very much looking forward to working with him for a year. Dragons were exciting, they had always had that common interest.

They had all finished their butterbeers and Rose offered to get them some more, she had just stood when Lunette practically shouted at her.

"No! Someone else can pick them, we'd actually like the drink and if you get them it'll all end up spilled on the floor." Lunette put a hand on rose's shoulder to make her sit down.

Rose just rolled her eyes and the rest of them held in a laugh while Albus collected their drinks.

"I'm really not that bad." Rose grumbled as Albus handed her the last butterbeer on the tray.

She immediately made it wobble and spill a good chunk of it on the table and it dribbled down on to their laps. Rose's ears turned red. It would have spilled more but Scorpius cast _Immobulus_. He tried to not let his smug grin show as he passed the drink back to Rose.

"You were saying?" Lunette laughed and raised eye eyebrows.

Albus laughed too. "You're so clumsy! How the hell do you stay on a broom?"

"Her feet don't have to touch the ground so she doesn't trip over them all the time." Scorpius laughed but his smile suddenly dropped and he looked up at Rose, they all looked between the two. He had broken their silence truce.

Rose's expression was blank for a moment. Then it cracked into a little laugh, "Sometimes I don't trip over my own feet, sometimes I trip over thin air."

Albus and Lunette sighed with relief while Rose and Scorpius laughed together.

"That's worse!" Scorpius chuckled and visibly relaxed.

Katie finally chimed in, "You know those books and muggle moving pictures where the main characters first meet when one drops their books and the other helps them pick them up? It that just generally how I meet people?"

"Normally I'm quick enough to use _Immobulus,_ and he's usually there to catch the ones I don't get." she nodded her head towards Scorpius.

"I'm flattered you noticed." he's smug smile returned. "I would never miss an opportunity to see you fall over, I think I might actually miss you when you're off to Romania."

Rose laughed, not seeing the truth in his words unlike Albus and Lunette who knew how he felt.

"Dropping a butterbeer or the occasional book is not the worst thing my clumsiness has ever led to, do you remember falling down that pit last year? I fell and I dragged you with me." She turned to Katie to explain further and didn't notice the glance between Albus and Lunette. "It used to be an old secret tunnel but was blocked up years ago and James and Lorcan were trying to get it to work again, then they gave up and it's just a bit like a fox hole." Rose could laugh about it now.

"We had detention for doing nothing and ended up in a black hole, I will never forget that." Scorpius remembered it being so dark, he would have had a panic attack if Rose hadn't been so calm and gotten him out quickly then stayed with him to make he was ok.

The looked around at their friends, none of whom could join in with the joke or the memory. They felt awkward and Rose quickly directed the conversation elsewhere before any of them could ask more about the incident. They had only found it by accident because Scorpius had been leaning so close to her and Rose had been too flustered to think about getting away.

"Hey, at least I've never dropped a fizzy drink on someone the first time I had a conversation with them." she poked fun at Albus.

The story was explained to Katie about the bonfire at Hunstanton where Lunette and Albus had met. That was a story they could all laugh at and had become an inside joke for the couple.

Soon enough Katie started stressing about how much time it had been since she last revised and the group decided that it was about time to go back to the school and get some work done. After dinner Rose and Scorpius carried out their rounds of the castle separately, checking on the prefects and making sure students coming from detention actually went back to their dormitories. They reached the common room at the same time and Rose headed straight for her room.

"Umm," Scorpius's voice wobbled trying to get her attention, it worked and Rose turned around. "I had fun today, together I mean. It's nice to see that we can get along and reminisce with our friends."

Rose smiled, "Yeah, it was nice." she admitted.

"And congratulations on the whole Romania apprenticeship." Scorpius was running out of things to say.

"Thanks, I've been trying to ignore the fact that I have no idea what to do with my life after Hogwarts. Now I know what I'm doing for the next year, if I get the right grades." She shrugged awkwardly, she was proud of herself. "Do you have any idea what you want to do?"

"Not exactly, probably something in the ministry. Auror sounds exciting, dangerous but exciting."

"You've got the grades for it, it's a lot of work though. My dad was an auror before I was born, my mum ran the office for a time, my uncle Harry now runs it and my mum is his boss."

"Mr Tinker is an auror."

"I don't think he will be for much longer, Lunette said something about him getting older and wanting to retire before he dies on the job."

Scorpius chuckled, "Well that's very encouraging." he said sarcastically.

"I'm sure he'd talk to you about it if you write to him. You never know, telling you his stories might just distract him from his messy divorce."

"More encouraging words."

"I'm being serious. If Lunette can't cheer him up, maybe a distraction from his feelings is all he needs."

"Is that really how you deal with feelings Weasley? Ignore them and distract yourself from them?" he sounded like he was almost pleading, "Do you really think it works well enough that you would advice other people to do the same."

Rose sighed, "What do you want me to say? It works and I hate feelings. You get distracted from what's important."

"How you feel is important, it's thinking that everything else is more important that is destructive."

"Hey, if I'm going to be destructive, it doesn't need to affect anybody else does it?" Rose found herself slightly irritated with where the conversation was heading, she didn't like talking about her feelings. She didn't even like think about her feelings for Scorpius, let alone talking about them to him.

"It affects everybody who cares about you." Scorpius was also feeling a bit frustrated, he desperately wanted to tell Rose how he felt but without knowing her thoughts on the subject he would never wish to be the first to say anything.

"Then no one should care about me." she shrugged and turned around.

"What do you think today was all about!" Scorpius shouted to stop her from going. "We were all there to celebrate your future, if that doesn't say that your friends care about you, then I don't know what will. You know that your family and friends are excited about your victories and don't forget that they still care about you just as much when you're in need. Don't go on about how ignoring your feelings only affects you, because that's really not true." he looked at her and shook his head, not knowing if she understood what he was trying to say. "If your feelings are confusing, then try to understand them rather than distracting yourself with literally anything else. That's how you hurt people who care about you, not taking care of yourself."

It would take Rose a long time to stop wishing that she had not replied in such a heartless way.

"Stop pretending that you care." she muttered and trudged off to bed.

Rose lay in bed staring at the ceiling, the conversation echoing in her mind. He had been right of course, and she knew that. It didn't escape her that she was the one pretending, for a long time she had been pretending not to care about Scorpius. It was difficult to let got of their friendship years ago, but it was easy to let herself believe that nothing was ever truly lost because neither of them cared about the other. Rose had bottled up and ignored what kinship she had felt, and then what romantic thoughts she had about him, pretended to hate him until she found that she often didn't have the energy to even believe that. Rose turned onto her side and scowled at her bedroom door. She didn't have time to think about Scorpius or her unresolved feelings for him, she had a future to think about and exams to pass.

 **JUNE**

The pressure was high among the seventh years. The countdown to NEWT exams had sharply turned from weeks away to just a matter of days away. Katie Webb took to spending every moment she could in the library, more so than usual. She was lucky to count Scorpius and Rose as her friends, they split their time revising. Half of the time with Katie and the other half on their own or with Albus and Lunette. They did this in order to keep out of each other's way, and, more importantly, to ensure that one of the was always there to encourage her to come down to the great hall for meals and return to the Ravenclaw common room before curfew so that she would have a decent night of sleep.

While avoiding each other, Rose and Scorpius were able to not have the added stress of an argument on top of revision stress. Not to mention the conversation they had had at the end of May which made them both eager not to mention. Scorpius because he knew that had Rose not walked away, he would have been tempted to tell her how he felt. And Rose because she regretted so much of what she had said.

Albus seemed to have a constant confused expression fixed on his face. Lunette had never spent so much time in the library before then, not that she had never taken her studies seriously, but usually she only went in to borrow a book every now and then.

It was lunch time one day and Rose watched Katie carefully. "Katie, how about in five minutes time we go to lunch?"

"Hmm." Katie nodded and kept on writing at her hurried pace.

"Katie?"

"Hmm." she just absently made the noise again with another nod.

Rose sighed, "Katie there's a flying horklump outside the window." she said with a smile, hoping some ridiculous would snap Katie out of her study trance.

"Hmm." was the only response Katie gave.

"Katie, the world is ending. The ghosts have been recalled to the afterlife, the devil is dancing on the ceiling and the whole school is on fire." She got no response this time. "But it's ok because the giant squid has teamed up with the mere people and they're sending a Tsunami this way." Again no response to her test of made up gibberish that would have produced a reaction out of anybody who was actually listening.

Rose summoned her patronus, the little fox jumped on her shoulders with affection and the sat on top of the book Katie was reading.

Katie looked up startled. "Dementors..." she mumbled.

Rose put a comforting hand on Katie's forearm. "No dementors, I was just messing around."

"Sorry," Katie smiled and shook her head, feeling a but groggy.

"Ok, so shall we go to lunch?" Roe started to pack up her books.

"I can't, need to finish this chapter."

"Katie, I couldn't convince you to have breakfast this morning because you were too engrossed in something or other, now I'm putting my foot down and saying that you have to have lunch." Rose raised her eyebrows.

Katie put her hand on her stomach, "I am hungry now that I think about it."

"Good." Rose said with triumph. "If you study for too long without a break, your head will implode."

Katie laughed and started to pack up her books as well. "My head won't implode Rose."

"Yes it will, if your brain doesn't implode by itself, I'll do it for you." She pretended to flip through one of her charm books. "There's got to be some sort of head exploding head exploding hex in here somewhere."

"Come on, Madam Pince is glaring at us." Katie laughed again and dragged Rose out of the library and towards the great hall. "Hey Scopius." she smiled at him when he bumped into them outside the library.

"Hey Katie, you off to lunch?" he asked with concern, knowing that she hadn't had breakfast.

"Yeah, Rose said I need a break or she'll explode my head."

Scorpius looked behind Katie to see Rose playing with her patronus. She had summoned birds for it to chase. He chuckled and shook his head. When Scorpius looked back at Katie, her eyes were wide and her grin was smug.

"Hang on, do you like-?" she started.

"No, no way." he defended himself. "We are not having this conversation, goodbye." Scorpius panicked and strutted off to the grand hall.

Exams were over sooner than anyone noticed, Rose and Scorpius were sitting the written section of their Magical Creatures exam, their last exam, while Lunette and Albus sat outside by the lake. There were students everywhere on such a sunny day when all they had to stress about was packing and getting their results back in just a few months time. For the Seventh years that meant that it would be graduation during the summer too. Albus had his arm around Lunette as she rested her head on his shoulder, life seemed pretty great in that moment.

"I love you." Lunette said with a sigh. "I know we've said it a few times but never really discussed what we mean when we say love." she sat up and looked Albus in the eye. "I love you, not in a teenage naive and 'first love' sort of way, in an 'I'm in love with you' sort of way."

"Lunette, I love you too," Albus started out by sounding unconvinced.

Lunette smiled, "But you're not 'in' love with me?"

Albus nodded, "Are they really different things? I think we're still naive teenagers." he shrugged.

Lunette wasn't hurt by what he said, she leaned forward and kissed him. "Well I think they're different, I love Rose but I'm in love with you-"

"That's more sisterly love." Albus interrupted.

Lunette chuckled. "Alright, you say whatever you need to to try and convince yourself that I'm wrong. I know I'm not wrong about my feelings for you, Albus I'm in love with you." she wrapped his arm around her and leant on his shoulder again. "I think you're in love with me too, but I'll wait for you to say it properly when you're ready."

Albus laughed nervously. "Oh, no pressure." he said sarcastically.

Lunette looked him dead in the eye again, "No pressure. You take as long as you like. We're leaving Hogwarts now and the future is uncertain, so I just wanted you to know how I feel."

"How is your dad?" Albus spoke quickly.

"Fine, change the subject." Lunette laughed. "My dad is ok I think. He's finally accepted that I'm happy to move into that flat and he actually bought it instead of just renting. He's still looking for a little house though. The only time he hears from my mother is when her lawyer sends her copies of the divorce papers. It should all be over soon."

"Are you alright with it all being over?"

"Yeah, well, no. Mum won't speak to me, dad is unsure of everything he does because he sees being married for so long as such a huge mistake, and I am trying to not see my memories of our family together through rose-tinted glasses. They were miserable together and fought all the time, I know that, but as a child I would ignore it and when I got older I pretended it never happened." Lunette didn't sound said as she spoke, instead she sounded mature and unemotional.

Albus knew her better than that. He knew Lunette only sounded cold as she spoke of her parents, to speak how she really felt would mean bursting into tears. He gently squeezed her closer to him. Albus wondered at what she had said, he knew of course that Lunette would never lie about being _in love_ with him. But he had no idea if what he felt for her was the same.

Lunette let out a shaky sigh and Albus decided to change the subject.

"Scorp and Rose's exam has to be over by now." he mused.

Lunette sat up and kissed his cheek, grateful for the change of subject. She looked around them at the other students lounging around the lake, she could see Hagrid's hut in the distance with the half giant old man sitting outside half asleep in a chair. She looked towards the castle and saw Scorpius and Rose making their way towards them. They weren't speaking to each other, but to see the two of them walk together in a comfortable silence was a nice sight for Albus and Lunette.

As they got closer it was obvious to see Rose muttering to herself and glaring at her feet while she walked. Scorpius was smiling but his eyes darted to Rose with concern every now and then.

"Exams are over!" Scorpius grinned when they reached the couple. He stretched his long arms up and yawned. "All I want to do now is sleep for two days solid."

Rose kept walking and muttering, straight passed them and on towards Hagrid's hut.

"Rose?" Albus called out to her.

She limply lifted her hand and waved it at them without looking. She marched on to Hagrid's hut.

Lunette and Albus suddenly turned their heads to glare at Scorpius.

"What did you do to her?!" Albus asked accusingly.

Scorpius held up his hands in defense and cried, "I didn't do anything! Not this time at least." His friends were not convinced. Scorpius slid his hands into his pockets and shrugged, he watched Rose make her way to Hagrid's hut. He half smiled at her, she looked like a little ball of stress just reading to burst. He couldn't get the image of Rose looking like a ginger puffskein who really needed a hug. "After we got out of the exam Weasley went straight to the staff room, I went with her but she was muttering to herself I doubt she even noticed me. She was looking for Professor Nye Longbottom said that he was with Hagrid. That's why we came this way."

Lunette and Albus stared at Scorpius, then back at Hagrid's hut where Rose had just entered, then back to Scorpius, then back at the hut. At the same time they leapt up and half walked half jogged there. Scorpius raised one eyebrow in confusion, shrugged, and then quickly caught up with them.

"... fine, absolutely fine. In fact, probably better than fine!" They heard Professor Nye exclaim from within the hut.

"I'm not sure professor..." Rose's voice wobbled with worry.

"I assure you Miss Weasley, you are one of my best students and I have never once doubted that you would fail. Your exams are all over now right?"

"Yes sir, but-"

"Then you should be celebrating! And relaxing, and having a good time with your friends. It's over now, worrying about it and going through every little question with me isn't going to change the outcome."

"Hallo!" Hagrid suddenly woke up and was startled by the three students hovering by his front door. "Wha' are you three up t' then?"

"We're just checking on Rose." Albus explained.

"Wha-?" Hagrid grumbled, obviously unaware of either Rose or Professor Nye in his hut.

"Sorry professor, and thank you." then heard Rose was with resignation as her opened the door. "What are you three doing here?!" she jumped back in alarm, she lost her balance and started to waver.

Scorpius pushed passed his friends and leapt forward and grabbed Rose's hand so that she didn't fall.

"Woah, thanks." Rose chuckled, her smile disappeared when she looked up to she that it was Scorpius who was still holding her hand. She snatched it away, "Oh, you." she said bluntly. Her smile returned when she noticed that Hagrid was awake. "Hagrid! How are you?"

"Very nice of yeh' to ask Rose, I'm alrigh' can't complain me." he said with a grin that reached his beetle black eyes. "'Sppose you lot will be sad, eh? Las' year at Hogwarts an' all."

Lunette burst into tears without warning, and buried her head in Albus's shoulder. "I hadn't thought of it much until now!"

"Woah! I didn' mean no harm Lunette." Hagrid reached forward and patted her arm awkwardly.

"Hagrid what've you done now?" Nye asked as he came through the door with two giant mugs of tea and passed one to Hagrid.

Lunette sniffed and wiped away her tears. "Sorry, it's not his fault. But Hogwarts is our home, I get to see you guys," she turned to Rose and Scorpius, "I get to see my family every day." Seh took Albus's hand in her own and looked him dead in the eye. "But I am excited for our future."

Albus smiled and kissed Lunette's nose which made her laugh. "I'm excited too."

Nye squinted his eyes in concentration at Lunette, "Miss Tinker is it?"

"Yes sir." she smiled.

"Have you thought of coming back to Hogwarts? Just that professor Cawcrous was telling me the other day how he wanted to retire in a few years which would leave us without a potions professor. This is a man who rarely praises anyone if he can help it, but he has begrudgingly told a few of us that you are the best student he's had in years." Nye frowned at himself. "Don't tell anyone I said that. He's been working here for about 25 or 26 years, I think he just wants to spend time with his daughter now."

"He actually has a family?!" Scorpius exclaimed.

"Well, yes," Nye said slowly, not understanding the student's shock.

"And they actually want to spend time with him?!" Rose blurted out with equal amazement.

"Rose!" Lunette said in a warning tone, "And you Scorp, don't be so rude." She rolled her eyes and then smiled at the professor. "Thank you sir, I'll think about it."

 **END OF YEAR FEAST**

The lit candles floated around the tall enchanted ceiling which showed that outside the sun was setting. The great hall was decked out in Hufflepuff colours to celebrate them winning the house cup, they had been neck and neck with Gryffindor for the last month, but winning the quidditch cup had finally tipped them to first place.

Everyone was in high spirits, dressed in their uniforms and wearing their pointed hats which was rare. The teachers at the table were smiling and laughing with each other. Headmaster Fairweather was seated in the middle with professors Lupin, Nye and Longbottom to his right in light conversation.

They were talking about their bet from two years ago about the head boy and head girl. They watched Rose sat between Lily and Phil at the Gryffindor table, she was positively beaming. And then they peered at Scorpius, sat beside Albus at the end of the Slytherin table near there door, his usual seat.

"Scorpius told me that he wants to be an auror." Lupin said, recalling his conversation a few weeks before with the young man who he was distantly related to. "And Rose will be off to Romania soon." He stuck his hand out and reached over the tabel to shake both of their hands. "So then, it's the end of seventh year and they're not together. I owe you guys 5 galleons." Lupin sighed.

"I still say they'll marry different people." Nye shrugged.

Lupin and Longbottom exchanged glances.

"Nah, they'll get together eventually." Neville smiled.

Their discussion was cut short when Fairweather stood to address the students.

"Well then," his happy tone echoed around the hall as the chatter died down to listen to him. "I think it's about time I gave you all a long and boring speech since I wasn't here at the start of the year. Which is completely abominable of me." he grinned, "Now, the House Cup, I believe in fourth place we have Slytherin with three hundred and points..."

He paused while the Slytherin table groaned with the defeat. Rose didn't know why she did it, but she turned around the face them and shone a smug smile at Scorpius the sharply turned back around.

"In third place in Ravenclaw with three hundred and fifty two, Gryffindor in second place with four hundred and twenty six. Leaving Hufflepuff to take the lead with four hundred and seventy two points! Well done to you all!"

The hall exploded with cheering from the Hufflepuff table, even professor Nye, the head of the house, couldn't help but stand up and dance a funny little jig which made some of the sore losers laugh. The plates were filled with food in front of them and everyone dug in with delight.

After everyone was full and they started to make their way towards their common rooms, the seventh years hung around by the front doors for the seventh year prefects and head girl and boy to join them. Once they arrived, Fairweather opened the doors and they all poured out to see a wonderful sight for their graduation. Two large marquees had been set up, and between them was a small orchestra of charmed instruments and space for dance. The marquees held tables of drinks and small round tables. Hannah Longbottom was there, she waved excitedly at the students and Neville who was behind them.

"Exam result haven't come in yet, but it's time you all relax with this graduation. A tradition as old as Hogwarts itself, we have a chance at an evening of laughter and friendship. Enjoy the fireworks, courtesy of Weasley Wizard Wheezes, butterbeer from the Three Broomsticks. And tomorrow your journey will be complete by travelling to Hogsmeade separately from the rest of the school. Back on those boats you go, to say your final goodbye with a magnificent view of the castle by crossing the great black lake. But for now, enjoy yourselves. Dance and be merry."

The laughter and chattering never stopped, some mermaids from the black lake poked their heads up to peek. Rose was enjoying the music and peacefully watching the stars when the fireworks began and exploded across the sky. They were distracting golden and silver colours, animated fireworks in the form of a badger, a lion, an eagle and a snake chased each other around until a large dragon chased them all off. Then more and more dragons joined it as the colours faded and then more and more colours burst everywhere.

While everyone looked up, Rose didn't notice at first that Scorpius had silently stood beside her.

When she caught sight of blonde hair in the corner of her eye, she jumped. "Malfoy!" she croaked.

"Shhh," he put his finger up to his mouth. "I didn't mean to startle you sorry." he whispered. "Will you dance with me?" his heart raced, anxious for her answer. "After the fireworks I mean."

Rose blinked slowly. It was so unexpected. And there was no hint of malice or mischievous intent in his expression. "Ok." she smiled and nodded, forgetting that this was the guy she was supposed to hate.

Scorpius sighed with relief. "Great, Fairweather wants us to continue the tradition of the head boy and head girl being some of the first to dance, after the teachers start, and then the prefects and then everyone else can join in. He just told us but no one could find you." he smiled.

"Oh, yeah, fine then." Rose sounded disappointed, though she wasn't sure why. She was very happy to join the tradition but some reason, his explanation for asking disheartened her. She shrugged and moved away from him.

Scorpius's eyes widened, was it possible that she genuinely wanted to dance with him? "Wait," he caught up with her. "Just so you know, I would've asked you to dance regardless."

Rose turned and eyed him cautiously, again he sounded sincere. "Well," she chuckled, "I guess that's very nice of you."

"So you would've said yes even if it hadn't been a request from Fairweather?" he asked hopefully.

"Would you believe me if I said no?" she smiled and raised her eyebrows.

"Not now you've already said yes." Scorpius grinned, took her hand in his and linked their fingers together. He pulled her along gently, behind the crowd and towards Fairweather, McLaggen and

Grindley, who was the other seventh year prefect from Slytherin.

"Ah, Miss Granger-Weasley." Fairweather whispered excitedly when they arrived. "I expect Mr Malfoy has told you about my little tradition."

"Yes sir." Rose nodded.

Scorpius had yet to let go of Rose's hand and it didn't look like he was planning to any time soon. Rose surprised herself by not minding at all, in fact she found him quite comforting to be so close. McLaggen shot her a confused look when he noticed them holding hands but she simply glard back and dared him to say a word. So McLaggen quickly looked away.

They enjoyed the rest of the fireworks hand in hand, slightly separated from the rest of the students. Scorpius thought his heart might burst from happiness.

As soon as the fireworks ended, the music started, nothing sounded more beautiful. Hannah Longbottom jumped up with delight and ran to Neville, he turned bright red in front of his students.

"Come on!" she giggled as she grabbed his hand and led him to dance area. "Oh Neville, every year I drag you to be the first couple to start dancing, isn't about time you stop looking so embarrassed?"

The danced gracefully, which surprised a great number of the seventh years. "You don't have to drag me anywhere, I'll happily follow you." Neville whispered in her ear. Now both of them had bright red cheeks, they laughed it off and danced happily.

Fairweather sooned joined them, dancing with his professor Stockett who looked livid. Lupin laughed loudly and leaned it to joke with Hagrid.

"Every year," sad Lupin, "Every year he asks he to dance and every year she resents him for it!"

Next to join the dancing was McLaggen and Grindley, who were less elegant and just managed to say from side to side as neither of them had any rhythm. Rose's heart raced and Scorpius led her to the dance floor. He pulled her in close and smiled.

"Just a warning, I can't dance." Rose said in a panicked whisper.

"You can't?"

"No, I'm probably the clumsiest person you know so why should it be a surprise that I can't dance?"

It was a waltz and Rose looked at her feet the entire time in order to get the steps right but instead she kept on standing on Scorpius's feet.

"Sorry, sorry….sorry…..sorry again." she mumbled everytime she stepped on him.

"It's fine." he laughed. "Look at me rather than you're feet. My mother taught me to dance when I was young so I know how this works." He only instructed her when she finally looked him in the eye. "One, two, three, one, two, three. There we go, you're getting it. Sadly you have to let me lead." his smile never dropped.

Rose's ears turned red, the blush spread to her cheeks and neck. Eventually a lot of students joined in, Lunette and Albus were among of the first. When the dance floor got a bit too busy, Scorpius and Rose left in order to get a drink.

"That was fun, wasn't it?" Scorpius felt like his heart was going to jump out of his chest and run away.

Rose laughed, "If you call being stepped on every to seconds fun, then sure."

The music started to wind down and students went back to their dormitories to pack to leave the next day. Neville and Hannah were the last the leave and made sure everything was packed away with the help of Hagrid and Teddy Lupin.

Scorpius and Rose climbed the stairs and walked to the shared common room together. Rose yawned, flicked her wand at the desk, her books and other personal belongings in the shared common room and sent them up to her room. Scorpius followed suit.

"We've made a pretty good team this year, haven't we? Despite everything, despite our previous years of arguments." Scorpius spoke up.

"Yeah, I guess we have. All things considered, we did work well together." She smiled at him. "I'm glad you were head boy, you've done well."

"You were great too, a brilliant role model."

"I don't know about that..." she chewed her lip with a guilty expression. "I know I said it before, but I'm sorry, so sorry about taking my anger and frustration on you back in November. I shouldn't have-"

"Weasley, I told you-"

"No it was unacceptable and completely out of character. I could've hurt you and you've already been hurt enough this year, and last year-"

"Stop it! I've already forgiven you, please stop beating yourself up about it and forgive yourself. I know you better than you realise, I know that you would never hurt me intentionally, that's why you stopped yourself before you cast that spell and that's why I can forgive you so easily." Scorpius sighed, "You were more a danger to yourself that night. You had pent up your feelings of anger so much that you had a panic attack."

Rose looked down at the ground, not wanting to match his gaze. "Well, thank you for helping that night."

"It really was the least I could do after you've helped me so many times. See, you're a good role model."

Rose glanced around the room to check all her belongings were gone and then yawned. "Bloody hell, I didn't realise how tired I was. I'll see you tomorrow." and she went to bed.

Scorpius spent a little longer in the common room, sitting on the sofa watching the Gryffindor tapestry. He considered telling Rose how he felt, but he felt too much like a coward. He was terrified of her response, of her rejection.

The next morning their exam results landed on their laps at breakfast, Albus had gotten good marks in most things but had done especially well in muggle studies. Lunette has similar results, except that she received the highest marks in potions. The potions professor even congratulated her himself and managed a sort of smile, but it made everybody feel uncomfortable so he soon went back to frowning. Rose and Scorpius, of course, both were the top of the year with Katie Webb only a few marks behind them both. And that was just because she hadn't taken as many classes as those two. Scorpius showed his marks to Lupin who assured him that the auror office would be fools not to take him, and that if he ever needed a letter of recommendation then he would be happy to do it. Rose was ecstatic, she received top marks in everything but was especially proud of her O in Magical Creatures. She wrote to her uncle Charlie and expected a reply within a few days. Nye and Hagrid were very proud of her and both asked to be updated on her studies and care of different dragons.

After breakfast the seventh years were once again taken away from the rest of the students and led towards the kind-of-underground harbour where they got into boats. Albus and Lunette were in one with Philomela Abel-Roy and Melissa Fawley. Scorpius and Rose were some of the last to turn up and were consequently lucky enough to only be three to a boat, with Katie Webb.

Memories of first year came flooding back as the boats, led by Hagrid, glided smoothly under a tunnel then through a curtain of ivy. They all bent down, some had to almost fold themselves in half in order to to hit their heads, they were much taller than they were the first time they had been on these boats. They sailed further and further away from the cliff and they all turned around to watch the magnificent castle that loomed over them became more distant. Nostalgic sighs echoed around the students as the saw the beautiful castle which had been their home for seven years.

They reached the shore of the black lake near Hogwarts. They clambered out of the boats and up a narrow path surrounded by thick trees which blocked out a lot of what little sunlight there was on that greyish day. And suddenly they were at the station. It was all over. But they had a future to look forward to.

Lunette and Albus were uncommonly quiet on the train, as they sat side by side, hand in hand, watching the countryside and muggle towns fly past them. Rose and Scorpius barely saw each other, they were busy stopping a lot of the first and second years from using magic outside of school.

 **THE WAY BACK HOME**

They reached the station and Scorpius got of with his suitcase before he could find Albus or Lunette to say goodbye. So when he found his parents waiting for him already, he asked to stay at platform 9 ¾ just for a little while longer. When he could see that they were getting a little bit restless and impatient, he casually muttered an excuse moved away to search for Albus in the crowd.

But then he spotted her, Rose, taking the first step for the last time, off the Hogwarts Express and into Kings Cross Station. She seemed to glow exclusively in his eyes, as though there was no one else in the busy station, just her. His eyes followed Rose as she ran to hug her parents, she was kissed on the cheek by her mother and lifted up for a few seconds by her father, as if she was five years old again an weighed nothing. But then she stopped, and she turned. Rose took a deep breath and let herself have one last long look at the train, ignoring the people everywhere. She felt like she was seeing the train for the first time, taking in every detail, every smudged window and every lopsided curtain. Rose's long look at the train was interrupted by suddenly noticing Scorpius watching her. She thought he had a strange gleam in his eyes, and didn't look at anyone but her despite the bustling of the crowd. Rose stared back, and the people either side of him seemed to melt away because they didn't matter at that second. Scorpius saw her expression, she was not sad or angry, but it looked as though she wanted to say something but she was just too far away. He was just summoning the nerve to get nearer, when Rose broke their moment as Neville had just pulled her out of the way of his falling suitcase.

"Sorry Rose. Hannah and I catching another train with muggles in a but, we're going to visit some of her family, she should be out in a second." Neville peered into to train

"That's alright professor." she laughed and helped him with it.

"You're not a student anymore, call me Neville."

"I'll do you one better, Uncle Neville. You'll always be an uncle to me and Hugo. Let me help you with that suitcase." Rose waved her wand at the heavy suitcase that was still half in the train, she guided it above the heads of milling parents and walked off in search for a cart to put it down on.

Scorpius finally spotted Albus near his aunt Hermione and made his way towards his friend, he stopped short when he heard himself mentioned by Neville.

"And how was my Rosie as head girl? Be honest Neville, did she get along with the Malfoy's son?" Hermione smiled.

"Scorpius and Rose were excellent, they well surpassed all expectations of every teacher. I'll admit we were a bit worried, we weren't sure how it would work out. But after Rose's response to my letter back before she was even a prefect-"

"What letter?" Hermione asked. Scorpius hid and creeped closer, grateful that Hermione had asked what he had hoped she would.

"I thought you knew, back when the headmaster and I were choosing new prefects, I wrote to Rose and asked her opinion on Scorpius. With him being a Malfoy, we weren't sure how some of the more narrow minded students would react to having him in a place of responsibility. I was trying to convince some of the other teachers that it wouldn't be a problem, but they needed more persuading. I thought if the one person we all knew disliked him the most agreed with me, then no one else could argue back. Her letter explained how Scorpius, despite neither of them being on friendly terms, would be an excellent candidate for prefect. Turns out she was right, not that I ever doubted either of them. And when it came to choosing head boy and head girl, I couldn't think of any two prefects that could do it better. I used Rose's old letter again to convince the headmaster Fairweather that lack of friendship clearly did not mean that they respected each other any less, and the rest was history. I promise you Hermione, Rose and Scorpius worked brilliantly together. You should be proud of her, if it weren't for that letter, I'm not sure how I would've convinced the other teachers that Scorpius would not be prejudged for being a Malfoy."

"I am proud of her, my Rose is clever and she has a big enough heart to know someone's potential when she sees it."

"It'll be hard for all of us to see her go." Hannah said as she suddenly popped up and held onto Neville's arm.

Ron appeared by his wife's side and knew they were talking of his dear little girl going off to Romania. "I always expected Rosie to turn out like me or Hermione, I never expected to have her turn out like Charlie! I'm not saying that I'm not pleased, my girl's brilliant. It's just that we rarely see my brother and I don't want Rosie to be the same."

"Oh Ron," Hermione found herself a tearing again at the prospect and Ron wrapped an arm around her.

Scorpius was shocked by this revelation. He went back to his parents and was grinning, and had no explanation for them why he couldn't stop. Albus and Lunette found him before they left and hugged him goodbye, and arranged a date within the next week to meet up and Lunete's new flat that she was sharing with her dad.

"Ok, see you next week!" Scorpius shouted goodbye and waved to his friends as he ran through the barrier one last time, into Kings Cross Station.

It had been an odd year for Scorpius. For all of them indeed. But Scorpius reflected mostly on Rose and how he realised his feelings for her had never been hatred. At the very least he new that he was in the middle of a very deep crush that wasn't going to go away anytime soon. 'But Rose is going away soon.' he thought to himself. 'Not for a few months though. And I'm not going to have today as the last time I ever see her.' Her deep dark eyes, her crazy fluffy red red hair, her piercing stare, her enchanting smile, her contagious laughter, her kindness, her intelligence, her infectious energy, even her incredible resolve and stubbornness, roamed around Scorpius's mind. The thought of her made him so happy. He wished one day that the thought of him would make her happy too, and that was why he refused to never see her again.

 **This is not the end of the story, more chapters to come….**


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